the air of "Csardas."

Ivan obeyed Angela's mandate. When he came to her he bowed low before
her.

"You wouldn't have troubled yourself to come near me only I sent for
you," she said, in a tone of gentle reproach.

"Into the presence of a queen one doesn't intrude; we wait to be
summoned."

"Don't try and flatter me; if you do like the others I shall treat you
as I do them, and not speak one word to you. I much prefer your way,
although you are always offending me."

"I do not remember to have ever offended you."

"Because you do nothing else. You know that very well."

It was now their turn; they joined the waltzers, and no one would have
guessed that it was fifteen years since Ivan had danced.

Meantime, in the card-room there was some gossip over this new whim of
the young countess. Count Edmund, as he shuffled the cards, declared
his cousin Angela was bewitched about this Ritter Magnet.

"Ah, is that so?" cried the Marquis Salista.

"Don't you believe him," interrupted Count Stefan. "I know our pretty
Angela; she is as full of mischief as a kitten. As soon as she remarks
that a man has a hobby-horse, she makes him ride it, puts it through
all its paces, caracoling, leaping, _haute ecole_. This is her trick:
once she knows the subject which interests a man, she talks of it with
such an earnest face, such sympathetic eyes; and when he has left her,
charmed at her intelligence, her sweetness, she ridicules the
unfortunate devil. This is the way she treated poor Sondersheim, a
very brave young fellow, who has only one fault, that he worships
Angela, and she abhors him. She laughs at everybody."

"That is true; but she praises Ivan, not to his face, but behind his
back to me, and not because he is a man of science, a geologist, but
because he is such a brave man."

"That is another of her tricks; the artful puss knows right well that
the praise which comes at third-hand is the sweetest of all flattery."

"I take good care not to repeat one word to Ivan."

"There you show him real friendship," remarked Salista, laughing.

In the ball-room the dancers had returned to their places.

"You were ready to leave Pesth," Angela was saying, with a charming
pout. "You needn't deny it; the abbe told me."

"Since then circumstances have detained me longer than I expected,"
returned Ivan, coolly.

"Have you got a family at home?"

"I have no one belonging to me in the world."

"And why have you not?"

This