laimed Mravucsan. "I knew you were a gentleman.
But why on earth didn't you say so before?"

"Because you gave me no chance to put in a word edgeways."

"That is true," laughed Mravucsan good-humoredly. "So you will take
them?"

"Of course, even if I were not going to Glogova myself."

"Are you really going there?" asked Veronica, surprised.

"Yes."

She looked at him thoughtfully for a minute, and then said:

"Don't try to deceive us."

Gyuri smiled.

"On my word of honor, I intended going to Glogova. Shall we all go
together?"

Veronica nodded her head, and was just going to clap her hands like the
child she was, when madame began to move on the sofa, and gave a deep
sigh.

"Oh dear," said Veronica, "I had quite forgotten madame. Perhaps after
all I can't go with you."

"And why not? The carriage is big enough, there will be plenty of
room."

"Yes, but may I?"

"Go home? Who is to prevent it?"

"Why, don't you know?"

"What?" asked Gyuri, surprised.

"Why, etiquette, of course," she said shyly.

(Gyuri smiled. Oh, what a little simpleton she was!)

"Yes, yes," she assured them, seeing they were laughing at her, "it says
in the book on etiquette: 'You must not accept the arm of a stranger.'"

"But a carriage is not an arm," burst out Mravucsan. "How could it be?
If it were, I should have two carriages myself. My dear child, leave
etiquette to look after itself. In Babaszek I decide what is etiquette,
not the French mamselles. And _I_ say a carriage is not an arm, so
there's an end of it."

"Of course you are right, but all the same, I must speak to madame about
it."

"Just as you like, my dear."

Veronica again knelt down by the sofa, and a whispered conversation
ensued, the result of which was, as Gyuri understood from the few words
he could hear, that madame quite shared Mravucsan's view of the case,
that a carriage is not an arm, and that if two people have been
introduced to each other, they are not strangers, and consequently, in
Madame Krisbay's opinion, they ought to accept the young man's offer.
Besides, in times of danger there is no such thing as etiquette.
Beautiful Blanche Montmorency on the occasion of a fire was saved by the
Marquis Privadiere with nothing on but her nightgown, and yet the tower
of Notre Dame is still standing!

Gyuri felt as impatient as a card-player when the cards are being dealt,
and a large stake has been placed on one of them, until at length
Veron