oe displayed a calm face, merely begged the stranger to
allow him to drink his black coffee. His request was granted without
demur. My husband calmly stirred his coffee, and entered into
conversation with the stranger, who did not seem to be of an angry
disposition. Indeed, he assured my husband that no harm would come of
this incident. My husband peacefully sipped his coffee.

"Then having finished it, he put down his cup, wiped his beautiful long
beard, turned to me, drew me to his breast, and kissed me on both
cheeks, not touching my mouth. 'Educate our boy well,' he stammered.
Then, turning to the stranger: 'Sir, pray do not trouble yourself
further on my account. I am a dead man; you will be welcome at my
funeral.'

"Two minutes later he breathed his last. And I had clearly seen, for I
sat beside him, how with his thumb he opened the seal of the ring he
wore on his little finger, how he shook a white powder therefrom into
the cup standing before him, how he stirred it slowly till it dissolved,
and then sipped it up little by little; but I could not stay his hand,
could not call to him, 'Don't do it! Cling to life!'"

Grandmother was staring before her, with the ecstatic smile of madness.
Oh! I was so frightened that even now my mind wanders at the
remembrance.

This smile of madness is so contagious! Slowly nodding with her gray
head, she again fell all in a heap. It was apparent that some time must
elapse before this recollection, once risen in her mind, could settle to
rest again. After what seemed to us hours she slowly raised herself
again and continued her tragic narrative.

"He was already the fourth dweller in this house of temptations.

"After his death his brother Kalman came to join our circle. To the end
he remained single; very early in life he was deceived, and from that
moment became a hater of mankind.

"His gloom grew year by year more incurable; he avoided every
distraction, every gathering; his favorite haunt was this garden--this
place here. He planted the beautiful juniper-trees before the door;
such trees were in those days great rarities.

"He made no attempt to conceal from us--in fact, he often declared
openly to us that his end could be none other than his brothers' had
been.

"The pistol, with which Akos had shot himself, he kept by him as a
souvenir, and in sad jest declared it was his inheritance.

"Here he would wander for hours together in reverie, in melancholy,
until the