not afraid of anything.

It was about midnight when the carriage drew up at the inn mentioned.

Lorand leaped down from the box, and hastened first into the inn, not
wishing to meet the lady who was within the carriage. His heart beat
loudly, when he caught a glimpse of that silver-harnessed horse in the
inn-yard, saddled and bridled. The steed was not fastened up, but quite
loose, and it gave a peculiar neigh as the coach arrived, at which there
stepped out from a dark door the same man whom Lorand had met on the
plain.

He was utterly astonished to see Lorand.

"You are here already, student?"

"You can see it with your own eyes, gypsy."

"How did you come so quickly?"

"Why, I ride on a dragon: I am a necromancer."

By this time the occupants of the carriage had entered: her ladyship and
a plump, red-faced maid-servant. The former was wrapped in a thick fur
cloak, her head bound with a silken kerchief; the latter wore a short
red mantle, fastened round her neck with a kerchief of many colors,
while her hair was tied with ribbons. Her two hands were full of cold
viands.

"So that was it, eh?" said the rider, as he perceived them. "They
brought you in their carriage." Then, he allowed the new-comers to enter
the parlor peacefully, while he himself took his horse, and, leading it
to the pump, pumped some water into the trough.

Lorand began to think he was not the rascal he thought him, and he now
proceeded into the parlor.

Her ladyship threw back her fur cloak, took off the silken kerchief and
put two candles before her. She trimmed them both, like one who "loves
the beautiful."

You might have called her face very beautiful: she had lively, sparkling
eyes, strong brown complexion, rosy lips, and arched eyebrows: it was
right that such light as there was in the room should burn before her.

In the darkness, on the long bench at the other end of the table, sat
Lorand, who had ordered a bottle of wine, rather to avoid sitting there
for nothing, than to drink the sour vintage of the Lowland.

Beside the bar, on a straw mattress, was sleeping a Slavonian pedler of
holy images, and a wandering jack-of-all-trades; at the bar the
bushy-headed host grinned with doubtful pleasure over such guests, who
brought their own eatables and drinkables with them, and only came to
show their importance.

Lorand had time enough calmly to take in this "ladyship," in whose
carriage he had come so far, and under whose ro