e young and pretty; but Thaddeus kept
looking at that spot where no one was sitting. That place was a riddle;
young people love riddles. Distraught, to his fair neighbour the
Chamberlain's daughter he said only a few scattering words; he did not
change her plate or fill her glass, and he did not entertain the young
ladies with polite discourse such as would have shown his city breeding.
That one empty place allured him and dazzled him; it was no longer empty,
for he had filled it with his thoughts. Over that place ran a thousand
guesses, as after a rain, little toads hop hither and thither over a
lonely meadow; among them one form was queen, like a water lily on a fair
day raising its white brow above the surface of a lake.

The third course was being served. The Chamberlain, pouring a drop of wine
into Panna Rosa's glass and passing a plate of cucumbers to his younger
daughter, said: "I must wait on you myself, my dear daughters, though I am
old and clumsy." Thereat several young men started up from the table and
served the young ladies. The Judge, throwing a sidelong glance at Thaddeus
and adjusting somewhat the sleeves of his kontusz, poured out some
Hungarian wine and spoke thus:--

"To-day, as the new fashion bids us, we send our young men to the capital
to study, and I do not deny that our sons and grandsons have more book
learning than their elders; but each day I perceive how our young men
suffer because there are no schools that teach how to conduct oneself in
polite society. Of old, the young gentry went to the courts of the lords;
I myself was for ten years a member of the household of the Wojewoda,26
the father of His Honour the Chamberlain." (As he said this he pressed the
Chamberlain's knees.) "By his counsels he fitted me for the public
service, and did not dismiss me from his care until he had made a man of
me. In my home his memory will ever be dear; each day do I pray God for
his soul. If at his court I profited less than others, and since my return
have been ploughing the fields at home, while others, more worthy of the
regard of the Wojewoda, have since attained the highest offices in the
land, at least this much I profited, that in my home no one will ever
reproach me for failing to show respect or courtesy to all--and boldly do I
say it, courtesy is not an easy science, nor one of slight account. Not
easy, for it is not confined to moving one's legs gracefully in bowing or
to greeting with a smile