t _soiree_ the date for another had been fixed.
Szilard did not appear even at this. Kengyelesy hunted for him from
pillar to post, but could not discover what had become of him. Nobody
had heard anything of him.

"He has poisoned himself," said Kengyelesy at last to a group of his
sporting friends. "It is quite plain to me. When a fellow has got that
sort of thing into his head once, he will try it again and again. I wash
my hands of the business, it is all the fault of the countess. Why does
she play her tricks with such people? No doubt he has swallowed poison
and then crawled away into some nook or corner of a forest. In a month
or two, I suppose, we shall come upon him unexpectedly."

"Whom shall we come upon unexpectedly?" cried a voice behind his back.
He looked around and there was the long lost Szilard.

"Oh, there you are, eh? What have you been doing with yourself all this
time? Come along with me--and Heaven help you!--I will take you to my
wife. Poor young chap! I thought you had already had enough of it and
made away with yourself in consequence."

Then he drew his arm through Szilard's and tripped off to the countess.
"Here he is!" he cried. "We have found him, do not abandon yourself to
despair on his account. Be so good as to sit down beside him!--here's a
chair! I'll take care nobody disturbs you!"

The countess pressed Szilard's hand and made a sign to him to remain.

"I have just arrived from Pest," said Szilard.

"Really! Well?"

"I have found out everything, or rather, I should say, a good deal."

"Do pray tell me at once. All the people are dancing, they will take no
notice of us."

"Ever since old Lapussa's death," began Szilard, "for he died soon after
he had altered his will, all the members of his family have been at
bitter variance. Madame Langai, the old man's widowed daughter, disputes
the validity of the last will--whereby Mr. John Lapussa becomes heir to
the exclusion of everybody else, and has instituted legal proceedings to
upset it. Madame Langai seeks to prove that old Lapussa was _non compos
mentis_ when he disinherited the other members of his family, and she
also maintains, that the old fellow had no reason whatever for hating
his grandchildren and reducing them to beggary as he has done. On the
other hand, Mr. John maintains that his dear father had excellent
reasons for detesting his grandchildren because the Baroness Hatszegi
has never written a letter to her grandfat