oned "ladyship."

She could not have been taken for more than fifteen years old: she was
wearing a pure white dress, trimmed with lace, according to the fashion
of the time, and bound round her slender waist with a broad rose-colored
riband; her complexion was brunette, and pale, in contrast to her ruddy
round lips, which allowed to flash between their velvet surfaces the
most lovely pearly set of teeth imaginable: her two thick eyebrows
almost met on her brow, and below her long eyelashes two restless black
eyes beamed forth: like coal, that is partly aglow.

Sir Magistrate was surprised that Topandy had such a young sister.

"My guests," said Topandy, presenting the servants of the law to her
ladyship.

"Oh! I know," remarked the young lady in a gay light-hearted tone. "You
have come to put in an 'execution' against his lordship. You did quite
right: you ought to treat him so. You don't know the hundredth part of
his godless dealings. For did you know, you would long since have
beheaded him three times over."

The magistrate found this sincere expression of sisterly opinion most
remarkable; still, notwithstanding that he took his seat beside her
ladyship.

The table was piled with cold viands and old wines.

Her ladyship entertained the magistrate with conversation and tasty
tit-bits, meanwhile the lawyer was quietly drinking his glasses with the
host,--nor was it necessary to ask him to help himself.

"Believe me," remarked her ladyship: "if this man ever reaches hell,
they will give him a special room, so great are his merits. I have
already grown tired of trying to reform him."

"Has your ladyship been staying long in this house?" enquired the
magistrate.

"Oh, ten years already."

("How old could the lady have been then?" the magistrate thought to
himself: but he could not answer.)

"Just imagine what he does. A few days ago he put up an old saint among
the vines as a scarecrow, with a broken hat on his head."

The magistrate turned with a movement of scorn towards the accused. It
would not be good for him if that, too, came to the ears of the Court.

"Do not speak, for you do not understand what you're saying," replied
Topandy by way of explanation. "It was an ugly statue of Pilate, a
relic of the ancient Calvary."[34]

[Footnote 34: Many such Calvaries exist in Hungary: they may be seen by
the roadside, and are used as places of pilgrimage by pious peasants and
others: there is always a pictur