or me if your name
takes the place of Vamhidy's in the gossip you complain of?"

"All that I desire is that a certain man shall be excluded from this
house, and if the countess desires it I will then keep away likewise."

The countess hastened to press Hatszegi's hand as a sign that _she_ did
not desire _that_.

"Very well, then, to prove to you that my relations with Vamhidy were
purely professional, I will break off all further intercourse with him."

"Then we'll clinch your ladyship's determination at once. May I make use
of your writing table? Have you any other ink than this rose-coloured
ink, with which to be sure, your ladyship generally writes your letters,
but which is a little unusual in official documents?"

"Everything you desire, sealing-wax included."

"That is not necessary for bills. What a fortunate thing that I have a
blank form with me."

The baron discovered in his pocket a blank form, without which no
gentleman ever goes about, and filled it up in the usual way. The
countess, with her elbows on the back of the armchair, looked over the
baron's shoulder while he signed the precious document, and thought to
herself: what an odd thing it is when a rich and influential man
refuses, with a heart of iron, to give his wife a little assistance
which would make her happy and save her brother from dishonour, and yet
lightly pitches the very sum required out of the window for the sake of
a pretty speech from another woman who is almost a stranger to him!

After signing the document Leonard did not linger another instant, but
snatched up his hat and hastened off so as to avoid the suspicion that
he was expecting some little gratification on account.

The pressure of the hand which the countess exchanged with him at
parting assured him that this conquering manoeuver on his part was a
complete success.

Subsequently, however, as, stretched at full length on his sofa, he was
smoking his first pipe of tobacco, he grew suspicious, and speedily felt
convinced that the countess's tale of the usurers was a fable from
beginning to end and that Vamhidy was some broker or other who lent
money privately; and he began to be not quite so proud at having ousted
the fellow from her ladyship's drawing room.

But a still greater surprise awaited him.

He had a shrewd suspicion that the Countess Kengyelesy did not require
the bill he had signed to discharge any debt to usurers; but not even
in his dreams would it ev