r did Elsa's placid gentleness help to cool his temper. When he
shouted to her she turned and faced him, and said with a pleasant--if
somewhat vague smile:

"Yes, Bela, what is it you want?"

"What is it I want?" he muttered, as he sank back into his chair, and
resting his elbows on the table he buried his chin in his hands and
looked across at the girl with a glowering and sullen look; "what is it
I want?" he reiterated roughly. "I want to know what has been the matter
with you these last two days?"

"Nothing has been the matter with me," she replied quietly, "nothing
unusual, certainly. Why do you ask?"

"Because for the last two days you have been going about with a face on
you fit for a funeral, rather than for a wedding. What is it? Let's have
it."

"Nothing, Bela. What should it be?"

"I tell you there is something," he rejoined obstinately, "and what's
more I can make a pretty shrewd guess what it is, eh?"

"I don't know what you mean," she said simply.

"I mean that the noted beauty of Marosfalva does me the honour of being
jealous. Isn't that it, now? Oh! I know well enough, you needn't be
ashamed of it, jealousy does your love for me credit, and flatters me, I
assure you."

"I don't know what you mean, Bela," she reiterated more firmly. "I am
neither jealous nor ashamed."

"Not ashamed?" he jeered. "Oho! look at your flaming cheeks! Irma neni,
haven't you a mirror? Let her see how she is blushing."

"I don't see why she should be jealous," interposed Irma crossly, "nor
why you should be for ever teasing her. I am sure she has no cause to be
ashamed of anything, or of being jealous of anyone."

"But I tell you that she is jealous of Klara Goldstein!" he maintained.

"What nonsense!" protested the mother, while the blush quickly fled
from the young girl's cheeks, leaving them clear and bloodless.

"I tell you she is," he persisted, with wrathful doggedness; "she has
been sullen and moody these last two days, ever since I insisted that
Klara Goldstein shall be asked to-morrow to the farewell banquet and the
dance."

"Well, I didn't see myself why you wanted that Jewess to come," said
Irma dryly.

"That's nobody's business," he retorted. "I pay for the entertainment,
don't I?"

"You certainly do," she rejoined calmly. "We couldn't possibly afford to
give Elsa her maiden's farewell, and if you didn't pay for the supper
and the gipsies, and the hire of the schoolroom, why, then, you and Elsa
w