alk as he might, he could not prevail
with Henrietta. In reply to all his arguments, she pleaded for her poor
brother, whose fate, she added, with tears, depended upon her instant
action.

Now, Mr. Gerzson was a gentleman--every inch of him. He was also
kind-hearted to a fault, and when he beheld the poor woman in despair,
he put an end to the difficulty by saying: "Very well, my lady, then I
will escort you to Pest myself."

At this Hatszegi fairly lost all patience. "Why, what can you be
thinking of?" cried he.

"Your pardon, Leonard, but I suppose you may regard me as old enough and
honourable enough to fill the place of a father to your wife on an
occasion like this! It appears to me that it will never enter anybody's
head to speak slightingly of a lady because she travelled alone with
me."

Good, worthy old man, he was quite proud that no woman could look at his
face without a shudder.

"And then I fancy that there's still quite enough of me left to defend a
woman against anybody, even though it were the devil himself. And I
should advise that worthy Fatia Negra not to show his mug to me, for my
stunted hand does not fire guns as our friend Makkabesku is in the habit
of doing, nor will my bullets be caught like flies, I warrant."

"You will be done out of the horse-racing, all through me," remarked
Henrietta sadly.

"Oh, it does not interest me much. I don't care much about it."

This was not true, but it was all the nicer of the old man to say so.

"Then you really mean to escort my wife to Pest?" said Hatszegi, at
last.

"With the greatest of pleasure."

"Very well. At any rate, I will see to all the travelling arrangements
that there may be no delay at any of the stages. Which way do you prefer
to go _via_ Csongrad or _via_ Szeged?

"By way of Csongrad."

"Well, 'tis the shorter of the two certainly, but at this season of the
year the road is as hard as steel. It will be as well to provide my
horses with fresh shoes."

"It is now ten o'clock. By midnight your coachman will have managed to
do all that. The baroness would do well if she had a little sleep now.
Meanwhile I will go home for my luggage and my weapons; at two o'clock
in the morning I shall be here again, and at three we can start."

"I will be awake and watching for you, and I thank you with all my
heart."

Mr. Gerzson drank up his tea and hastened home. Leonard advised
Henrietta to go and sleep--and she really was very sleepy--w