the new mistress of the manor. He
always trembled whenever he began his sermons; but once fairly started,
then he became a veritable Demosthenes.

"I only hope, reverend sir," jestingly observed the vice-palatine, "that
it will not happen to you as it did to the _csokonai_, not long ago.
Some wags exchanged his sermon-book for one on cookery, and he did not
notice it until he began to read in the pulpit: 'The vinegar was--' Then
he saw that he was reading a recipe for pickled gherkins. He had the
presence of mind, however, to continue, '--was offered to the Saviour,
who said, "It is finished."' And on that text he extemporized a
discourse that astounded the entire presbytery."

"I shall manage somehow to say my speech," returned the pastor, meekly,
"if only I do not stumble over the name of the lady."

"It is a difficult name," assented the vice-palatine. "What is it? I
have already forgotten it, reverend sir."

"Katharina von Landsknechtsschild."

The vice-palatine's pointed mustaches essayed to give utterance to the
name.

"Lantz-k-nek-hisz-sild--that's asking a great deal from a body at one
time!" he concluded, in disgust at his ill success.

"And yet, it is a good old Hungarian family name. The last Diet
recognized her ancestors as belonging to the nobility."

This remark was made by a third gentleman. He was sitting on the left of
the vice-palatine, and was clad in snuff-colored clothes. His face was
covered with small-pox marks; he had tangled yellow hair and inflamed
eyelids.

"Are you acquainted with the family, doctor?" asked the vice-palatine.

"Of course I am," replied the doctor. "Baron Landsknechtsschild
inherited this estate from his mother, who was a Markoczy. The baron
sold the estate to his niece Katharina. You, Herr Surveyor, must have
seen the baron, when the land was surveyed around the Nameless Castle
for the mad count?"

The surveyor, who was seated beside the doctor, was a clever man in his
profession, but little given to conversation. When he did open his lips,
he rarely got beyond: "I--say--what was it, now, I was going to say?"

As no one seemed willing to-day to wait until he could remember what he
wanted to remark, the doctor, who was never at a loss for words,
continued:

"The Baroness Katharina paid one hundred thousand florins for the
estate, with all its prerogatives--"

"That's quite a handsome sum," observed the vice-palatine. "And, what is
handsomer, it is said the ne