e of Christ crucified or a figure of the
same.]

"Well, and wasn't that holy?" enquired the flashing-eyed damsel.

The magistrate began to rise from his chair. (Her ladyship must have had
a curious education if she did not even know who Pilate was.)

Topandy broke out in unrestrained laughter. Then, as if he desired by an
earnest word to repair the insult his language had given, he said to the
lady with a pious face:

"Well, if you are right, was it not a gracious act on my part to give a
permanent occupation to such an honest fellow, who had been degraded
from office; and as he was bare-headed I gave him a hat to protect him
against changes of the weather. However, don't treat our friend to a
series of incriminations, but rather to that deer-steak; you see he does
not venture to taste it."

Her ladyship did as she was told.

The magistrate was obliged to eat: in the first place because it was a
beautiful woman that offered the viands to him, secondly because
everything she offered was so good. He had to drink, too, because she
kept filling his glass and calling on him to "clink" with her, herself
setting the example. She drained that sparkling liquor from her glass
just as if it had been pure water. And those wines were truly remarkably
strong. The magistrate could not refuse the appeal of her ladyship's
beautiful eyes.

"Forbidden fruit is sweet." The magistrate experienced the truth of the
saying keenly, in so far as one may place among forbidden fruit the
_dejeuner_ of which a man partakes in the house of a godless fellow,
destroying his appetite for the ensuing dinner to which he is invited by
a pious man.

The courses seemed endless: cold viands were followed by hot, and the
beautiful young damsel could offer so kindly, that the magistrate was
powerless to resist.

"Just a little of this 'majoraine' sausage. I myself made it yesterday
evening."

The magistrate was astonished. Her ladyship busied herself with such
things? When the sausage had disappeared, he made a remark about it.

"Yet no one would imagine that these delicate hands could busy
themselves with other things than sewing, piano-playing, and the turning
over of gold-bordered leaves. Have you read the almanacs of the
parliament?"

At this question Topandy burst into loud laughter, while the lawyer
covered his mouth with his napkin, the laughter stuck in his throat: the
magistrate could not imagine what there could be to ridicule in this