h the two clergymen. She watched
them get in; she remained at her post until the carriage returned
empty.

The female Jehu showed to the other servants the _pourboire_ she had
received; it was a new silver piece. It passed from hand to hand. What
a miracle! Of the fifteen million inhabitants of Hungary, fourteen
million five hundred thousand had never seen such a thing as a silver
piece of money. There was a clergyman for you, of a very different
pattern from that other, who gave, every Sunday, a fourpenny piece
wrapped carefully in a piece of paper, to be _divided_ among the
waitresses!

The time passed slowly to the countess; the clock seemed to go with
leaden weights. She wandered through all the rooms, her mind
revolving in what possible manner, by what possible entrance a man
could find his way into the castle. When it had struck seven o'clock
she saw herself that every door which communicated with her wing was
carefully locked; then she sat herself down in her own room. She took
out the plan of the castle, which had been prepared by the Florentine
artist who had built it. It was not the first time she had studied it;
when she had received the castle as a present from her father, she had
made herself mistress of every particular concerning it. The building
was three times larger than her income could afford to maintain. She
had, therefore, to choose which wing she would occupy. In the centre
there were fine reception-rooms, a banqueting-hall, an armory, and a
museum for pictures and curiosities. This portion was out of the
question. Also, from this portion of the castle a concealed staircase
led to a subterranean passage. This could be used as a means of
escape, and had no doubt served such a purpose when the old castle had
been besieged by the Turks. The grandfather of the countess had walled
up these steps, and no one could now get into the secret passage. The
left wing, which was similarly constructed to the one which the
countess inhabited, had served as a sort of pleasure residence to her
pleasure-loving ancestors. There were all manner of secret holes and
corners in it, communications of all kinds connecting the rooms, doors
behind pictures, concealed alcoves, and the like. The architect's plan
showed these without any reticence. Theudelinde naturally turned away
in horror from the idea of inhabiting this tainted wing, so full of
sinful associations; she set up her Lares and Penates in the less
handsome, b