easily to pleasure, to believe that no seductions of amusement, no
flatteries of my self-love, shall turn me from the devotion I owe you,
and from the fidelity to which I pledge my life." With this I closed my
letter and addressed it.

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE SALON

The morning after my _csardas_ success, a valet in discreet black
brought me a message from the Countess that she expected to see me at
her table at dinner, and from him I learned the names and rank of the
persons I had met the night before. They were all of that high noblesse
which in Hungary assumes a sort of family prestige, and by frequent
intermarriage really possesses many of the close familiar interests
of the family. Austrians, or indeed Germans from any part, are rarely
received in these intimate gatherings, and I learned with some surprise
that the only strangers were an English "lord" and his countess--so the
man styled them--who were then amongst the guests. "The Lord" was with
the Count on the shooting excursion; my Lady being confined to her room
by a heavy cold she had caught out sledging.

Shall I be misunderstood if I own that I was very sorry to hear that an
Englishman and a man of title was amongst the company? Whatever favor
foreigners might extend to any small accomplishments I could lay claim
to, I well knew would not compensate in my countryman's eyes for my want
of station. In my father's house I had often had occasion to remark
that while Englishmen freely admitted the advances of a foreigner, and
accepted his acquaintance with a courteous readiness, with each other
they maintained a cold and studied reserve; as though no difference of
place or circumstance was to obliterate that insular code which defines
class, and limits each man to the exact rank he belongs to.

When they shall see, therefore, thought I, how my titled countryman
will treat me,--the distance at which he will hold me, and the measured
firmness with which he will repel, not my familiarities, for I should
not dare them, but simply the ease of my manner,--these foreigners will
be driven to regard me as some ignoble upstart who has no pretension
whatever to be amongst them. I was very unwilling to encounter this
humiliation. It was true I was not sailing under false colors. I had
assumed no pretensions from which I was now to retreat. I had nothing
to disown or disavow; but still I was about to be the willing guest of
a society, to a place in which in my own count