fe-keeping, but Mr. Demetrius had commanded him to keep an eye upon
Koloman and his Latin exercises--which of them had the best right to
command in that house? But was it right to divulge a secret? Ah! that
was another question. It is true that, as a general rule, it is wrong to
betray secrets; yet, it is nevertheless true, that to betray a secret
that ought to be known is at least justifiable. Moreover, was it not a
Christian duty to let the grandfather know as soon as possible what
extraordinary things his granddaughter was turning over in her noddle?
And finally--there was money in it!--good solid cash! If old Lapussa did
not choose to pay a price for it, and a liberal price too, he should be
told nothing at all and Margari would show the old miser that he had a
man of character to deal with. For after all poor Margari had to live,
and this was worth as much as a thousand florins to him or its
equivalent anyhow. Surely Miss Henrietta could not be so unreasonable as
to expect poor Margari to chuck such a piece of good fortune out of the
window, especially as she had given him nothing herself.

At that moment someone knocked at the door and enquired whether Mr.
Margari was there.

Margari was so frightened that he bawled out: "No, I am not!"--so of
course he was obliged to open the door, but he concealed the packet of
letters in his pocket first.

It was the lacquey who came to ask whether Mr. Margari was aware that it
was past seven o'clock; he must come and read to the old gentleman.

Margari could not endure to hear the domestics speaking to him
familiarly.

"Seven o'clock! What do you mean?" said he. "Am I bound to know when it
is seven o'clock? Am I a clockmaker or a bell-ringer? If your master
wants me to know what a clock it is, let him send me, not a lacquey, but
a gold repeater watch!"

And salving his wounded dignity with these and similar effusions,
Margari trotted alongside the lacquey to the room of Mr. Demetrius, to
whom he immediately notified the change in the situation by sinking
down into a soft and cosey arm-chair instead of sitting down on the edge
of the hard leather-chair, expressly provided for him.

Demetrius measured him from head to foot with his terrible eagle eyes
and observed in an even more stridently moral voice than usual: "Well,
Margari, when are we going to have our novel reading?"

"We will have our reading presently, but it won't be a novel to-day."

"What do you mean, sir?