and
turned it to the best advantage. She received Count Szepkiesdy with all
the grave respect due to the most honourable of patriots, and assured
him that she had long since learnt to admire him as a great orator and a
noble-minded man. The Count inwardly cursed and swore at meeting with
some one who regarded him as a hero. To Count Gregory Erdey she extended
a smiling salutation from afar, which he requited by saluting her with
his hat in one hand and his wig in another, which provoked a roar of
Homeric laughter from the assembled guests. The young buffoon had had
his head clean shaved in order that his hair might grow all the
stronger, so that his bald pate quite scared the weak-nerved members of
the company. The young housewife curtsied low in humble silence before
the _Foispan_ Count Sarosdy and his wife, whereby she greatly pleased
that aristocratic patriot. He admitted that middle-class girls are not
so bad when they have been brought up in gentlemen's families. And Fanny
completely won the favour of his consort by impressing upon her servants
to be constantly in attendance on her ladyship, and fulfil all her
wishes; for, although Countess Sarosdy had brought two of her own maids
with her, she did not consider them sufficient. On the arrival of the
Countess Kereszty, Fanny joyfully rushed forward, and kissed her hand
before she could prevent it; whereupon the amazonian dame, first of all,
seized her with both her muscular arms, and held her at arm's length, at
the same time wrinkling her thick black eyebrows as if to scrutinize her
the better, and then drew her towards her, patting her on the back all
the time, and exclaiming in her bass-viol-like voice, "We like each
other, my little sister; we like each other, eh?" Yes, there could be no
doubt about it, Fanny was a success. Her beauty won the hearts of the
gentlemen, and her correct deportment the good opinions of the ladies.

Shortly afterwards the dinner-bell rang, and the company, with a great
clatter and still greater good-humour, occupied the tables, from a
description of which I conscientiously abstain--firstly and lastly
because such things as dinner-tables are only diverting _in natura_, but
infinitely tiresome in books. There was all the wealth, pomp, splendour
and profusion that the occasion and the reputation of the Nabob
demanded; there was everything procurable for man's enjoyment, from the
native products of Hungarian cookery to the masterly creatio