he slew me now.

And he looked as if he felt very much like doing it--but who would have
dared touch me and face the wrath of those two women--no--lionesses,
standing next to me on either side! They seemed ready to tear anyone to
pieces who ventured as much as lay a finger on me.

"Let us go," said mother, pressing my hand. "We have nothing more to do
here."--Mother passed out first: they took me in the middle and
grandmother, turning back addressed a categorical "adieu" to Balnokhazy,
whom we left to himself.

My cousin Melanie was playing that cavatina even now, though now I did
not care to stop and listen to it. That piano was a good idea after all;
quarrels and disputes in the house were prevented thereby from being
heard in the street.

When we were again seated in the cab, mother pressed me passionately to
her, and smothered me with kisses.

Oh, how I feared her kisses! She kissed me because she would soon ask
questions about Lorand. And I could not answer them.

"You were obedient: you took care of your poor brother: you helped him:
my dear child." Thus she kept whispering continually to me.

I dared not be affected.

"Tell me now, where is Lorand?"

I had known she would ask that. In anguish I drew away from her and kept
looking around me.

"Where is Lorand?"

Grandmother remarked my anguish.

"Leave him alone," she hinted to mother. "We are not yet in a
sufficiently safe place: the driver might hear. Wait until we get home."

So I had time until we arrived home. What would happen there? How could
I avoid answering their questions.

Scarcely had we returned to Master Fromm's house, scarce had Fanny
brought us into a room which had been prepared for my parents, when my
poor mother again fell upon my neck, and with melancholy gladness asked
me:

"You know where Lorand is?"

How easy it would have been for me to answer "I know not!" But what
should I have gained thereby? Had I done so, I could never have told her
what Lorand wrote from a distance, how he greeted and kissed them a
thousand times!

"I know, mother dear."

"Tell me quickly, where he is."

"He is in a safe place, mother dear," said I encouragingly, and hastened
to tell all I might relate.

"Lorand is in his native land in a safe place, where he has nothing to
fear: with a relation of ours, who will love and protect him."

"But when will you tell us where he is?"

"One day, soon, mother dear."

"But when? When? Why not at