e least. I do
as I like, and let all the chattering women go to h----l. Good-night,
Irma neni--good-night, Elsa! I hope you will be in a better frame of
mind to-morrow."

And before Kapus Irma could detain him or utter another protest, he was
gone, and she turned savagely on her daughter.

"Elsa!" she said, "you are never going to let us all be shamed like
this? Run after him at once, and bring him back!"

"He wouldn't come back, mother, if I begged him ever so . . ." said Elsa
drearily; "and besides--where should I find him?"

"On his way to Ignacz Goldstein's, of course. If you run you can easily
overtake him."

"I can't, mother," protested Elsa; "how can I?"

"You'll just do as I tell you, my girl!" said Irma firmly, and with a
snap of her lean jaws. "By the Holy Virgin, child! Are you going to
disobey your mother now? God will punish you, you know, if you go on
like that. Go at once as I tell you. Run out by this door here. No one
will see you, you will overtake Bela before he is half-way down the
street, and then you must just bring him back. That's all."

Long habits of obedience were so ingrained in the girl that at this
moment--though she felt quite sure that all her attempts would be in
vain, and though she felt bitterly humiliated at having to make such
attempts--she never thought of openly defying her mother. Indeed, she
quite believed that God would punish her if she rebelled so constantly,
for this had been drilled into her since her earliest childhood's days.

Fortunately for the moment everyone's attention was concentrated on a
table of liquid refreshments in a remote corner of the barn, and Elsa
and her mother were practically isolated here, and the last little scene
had gone by unobserved.

Irma picked a shawl from off her own shoulders and put it round her
daughter; then she gave her a final significant push. Elsa, with her
tear-dimmed eyes, could scarcely find the little side door which was
fashioned in the wooden wall itself, and gave direct access into the
street.

God would punish her if she defied her mother; well! God's wrath must be
harder to bear than the bitter humiliation to which her mother had so
airily condemned her. To beg Bela's forgiveness, to assure him of her
obedience, to stand shamed before him and before all her friends, surely
God couldn't want her to do all that?

But already she had crossed the threshold and was out in the dark,
silent street. She ran on mechanical