ancholy reverie was interrupted by Topandy's arrival.

"Now I beg you, Czipra, if you love me--" said Lorand.

If she loved him?

"To say not a single word to anybody of what you have seen. Nothing has
happened to me.--If from this moment you ever see me sad, ask me 'What
is the matter?' and I shall confess to you. But _that_ pale face shall
never be among those for which I mourn."

Czipra was rejoiced at these words.

"Let us show cheerful faces before my uncle and brother. Let us be
good-humored. No one shall see the sting within us."

"And who knows, perhaps the bee will die for it--" Czipra departed with
a cheery face as she said that. At the door she turned back once more:

"The cards told me all that last night. Till midnight I kept cutting
them. But the murderer always threatens you albeit the green-robed girl
always defends you.--See, I am so mad--but there is nothing else in
which I can believe."

"There will be something else, Czipra," said Lorand. "Now I am going
away with my brother to celebrate his marriage, then I shall return
again."

Thereupon there was no more need to insist on Czipra's being
good-humored the whole day. Her good-humor came voluntarily.

Poor girl, so little was required to make her happy.

Lorand, as soon as Czipra was gone, collected from the floor the torn,
trampled paper fragments, carefully put them together on the table,
until the note was complete, then read it over once again.

Before the door of his room he heard steps, and gay talk intermingled
with laughter. Topandy and Desiderius had come to see him. Lorand blew
the fragments off the table: they flew in all directions: he opened the
door and joined the group, a third smiling figure.

CHAPTER XXII

THE UNCONSCIOUS PHANTOM

What were they laughing at so much?

"Do you know what counsel Czipra gave us?" said Topandy. "As she did not
expect us to dinner, she advised us to go to Sarvoelgyi's, where there
will be a great banquet to-day. They are expecting somebody."

"Who will probably not arrive in time for dinner," added Desiderius.

Czipra joined the conversation from the extreme end of the corridor.

"The old housekeeper from Sarvoelgyi's was here to visit me. She asked
for the loan of a pie-dish and ice: for Mr. Gyali is expected to arrive
to-day from Szolnok."

"Bravo!" was Topandy's remark.

"And as I see you have left the young gentleman behind, just go
yourselves to taste Mistress Boris's