tary
anent the ultimate destination of those neighbours.

Some of them certainly had heard what he said, for he had not been at
pains to lower his voice. His riches and his position had made him
something of an oracle in Marosfalva, and he held all the peasantry in
such contempt that he cared little what everyone thought of him. He
therefore remained indifferent and sulky now whilst many glances of
good-humoured mockery were levelled upon him.

No one, of course, thought any the worse of Eros Bela for desiring the
beauty of the village for himself--he was rich and could marry whom he
pleased, and that he should loudly and openly proclaim his determination
to possess himself of the beautiful prize was only in accordance with
the impulsive, hot-headed, somewhat bombastic temperament of the Magyars
themselves.

Fortunately those chiefly concerned in Eros Bela's loudly spoken
determination had heard nothing of the colloquy between him and the
Jewess. The wild, loud music of the csardas, their own gyrations and
excitement, shut them out entirely from their surroundings.

Their stamping, tripping, twirling feet had carried them into another
world altogether; Ignacz Goldstein's barn had become a fairy bower, they
themselves were spirits living in that realm of bliss; there was no
longer any impending separation, no military service, no blank and
desolate three years! Andor, his arm tightly clasped round Elsa's waist,
his head bowed till his lips touched her bare shoulder, contrived to
whisper magic words in her ear.

Magic words?--simple, commonplace words, spoken by myriads of men before
and since into myriads of willing ears, in every tongue this earth hath
ever known. But to Elsa it seemed as if the Magyar tongue had never
before sounded so exquisite! To her the words were magic because they
wrought a miracle in her. She had been a girl--a child ere those words
were spoken. She liked Andor, she liked her father and her mother,
little Emma over the way, Mari neni, who was always kind. She had loved
them all, been pleased when she saw them, glad to give them an
affectionate kiss.

But now, since that last csardas had begun, a strange and mysterious
current had gone from Andor's arm right through her heart; something had
happened, which caused her cheeks to glow with a fire other than that
produced by the heat of the dance and made her own hands tremble when
they rested on Andor's shoulder. And there was that in his loo