she knows it now. Nor is this
all, my dear Vamhidy. Poor Henrietta's heart is suffering from another
sorrow which she feels all the more keenly because it smarts
unceasingly. Her young brother, Koloman, has suddenly disappeared from
Pest and left no trace behind him. They say all sorts of things about
him, which I do not care about telling you, but most of them are bad
enough. On the news reaching Henrietta, she asked her husband to make
enquiries as to the cause of Koloman's disappearance. Hatszegi wrote to
his agent and received an answer which he will not show to Henrietta on
any consideration; nay, more, he commanded his wife never to mention
Koloman's name before him again. The poor woman is naturally in despair.
She cannot conceive why the cause of her brother's disappearance should
be hidden from her. And now I am coming to the end and aim of all this
rigmarole. Henrietta believes, and I am likewise convinced of it, that
if her brother be alive, there is only one person in the world whom he
will try and seek out and that is yourself."

"Poor lad! he loved me much," sighed Szilard.

"And now you understand what I am driving at, don't you? If anybody can
find out the whereabouts of Henrietta's brother and the real reason why
he fled from his relations at Pest and took refuge neither with his
aunt, Madame Langai, who, I hear, has taken his part all through, nor
yet with his sister, it is most certainly you. This is no lawyer's
business, for a lawyer would set about it too gingerly. Here sympathy
and chivalry are before all other things necessary, and if the husband
declines this noble task, we have nobody to turn to except--the man who
has been sacrificed."

Szilard bit his lips to prevent the tears from coming. Who could ever
have thought that so frivolous a woman would have had so much feeling
for her friend? Then he rose, bowed and curtly informed the countess
that he would undertake the commission.

The countess pressed his hand affectionately: "And keep me informed of
everything," said she, "for I am the common post between you two."

Szilard thanked the countess and withdrew. He pondered the matter
carefully till the evening, and by that time he had a plan all ready in
his head.

For a whole week after this, nothing was to be seen of Vamhidy. Count
Kengyelesy sought him everywhere and could find him nowhere. Every day
he asked his countess what she had done with the young man.

Ten days after the firs