writing along with them, but was there any
necessity for it? How simple, how nice it all was! How well he must know
her taste who had selected it! Her husband could never have hit upon
such an idea.

What should she say to her husband if he should notice them? But why
should she show them to anybody? She would not even put them on till the
last moment, just before she started on her journey. All day long she
was as happy as a child who is going to its first party; even in her
husband's presence she could not control her delight.

But Hatszegi never enquired why she was so joyous. On the day before the
entertainment he went with his wife to the town in question, where he
owned, not the castle, it is true, but a comfortable mansion of
considerable extent, whose first floor was rented by a mining engineer
and his family. These worthy people felt highly honoured at receiving
the baron and his lady beneath their roof. They gave their distinguished
guests their best rooms which looked out upon the street, and retired
themselves to the back of the house. The mining engineer had a pretty
young wife, with whom Henrietta immediately made friends. Ladies love
the close companionship of their own sex best whenever something
entirely different is occupying their thoughts.

On the morning of the great day the big-wigs of the little town hastened
to pay their respects to the great lady who had arrived in their midst,
and whose reputation for benevolence had spread far and wide. Amongst
them was an aged woman whose hands and head were continually shaking,
and who almost collapsed with terror every time anybody accosted her
unexpectedly. She was the widow of a Unitarian pastor, well to do,
people said, and a large mining proprietor. Her nervous affection was
due to a painful episode in her life. One night Fatia Negra and his band
had broken into her house and played havoc there, and ever since she had
been tremulous and easily terror-stricken. The old woman was delighted
to see Henrietta, whom she called the guardian angel of the county, and
she would not be content till she had seized Henrietta's little hands in
her own trembling ones and raised them painfully to her lips.

At last the joyous evening arrived. Henrietta put on a very simple
ball-dress, compared with which the dress of the mining engineer's wife
was really luxurious. The black ornaments well became her attire, but
the engineer's wife was astounded at the simplicity of