aules blanches_, where the whole game of life is finer,
where the parries are neater, and the thrusts more deadly.

An accident gave me what all my ingenuity could not have effected. A
groom of the chambers came suddenly, one evening, into the hall where we
all sat, to ask if any one there could play the new _csardas_ called
the "Stephan." It was all the rage at Pesth; but no copy of it had yet
reached the far East. I had learned this while at Pesth, and had the
music with me; and of course, offered my services at once. Scarcely
permitted a moment to make some slight change of dress, I found myself
in a handsome _salon_ with a numerous company. In my first confusion I
could mark little beyond the fact that most of the persons were in the
national costume, the ladies wearing the laced bodies, covered with
precious stones, and the men in velvet coats, with massive turquoise
buttons, the whole effect being something like that of a splendid scene
in a theatre.

"We are going to avail ourselves of your talent at the piano, sir," said
the Countess Hunyadi, approaching me with a courteous smile. "But let me
first offer you some tea."

Not knowing if fortune might ever repeat her present favor, I resolved
to profit by the opportunity to the utmost; and while cautiously
repressing all display, contrived to show that I was master of some
three or four languages, and a person of education, generally.

"We are puzzled about your nationality, sir," said the Countess to me.
"If not too great a liberty, may I ask your country?"

When I said England, the effect produced was almost magical. A little
murmur of something I might even call applause ran through the room; for
I had mentioned the land of all Europe dearest to the Hungarian heart,
and I heard, "An Englishman! an Englishman!" repeated from mouth to
mouth, in accents of kindest meaning.

"Why had I not presented myself before? Why had I not sent my name to
the Countess? Why not have made it known that I was here?" and so on,
were asked eagerly of me, as though my mere nationality had invested me
with some special claim to attention and regard.

I had to own that my visit was a purely business one; that I had come to
see and confer with the Count, and had not the very slightest pretension
to expect the courtesies I was then receiving.

My performance at the piano crowned my success. I played the _csardas_
with such spirit as an impassioned dancer alone can give to the mea