he had begun.

"Just ten years have passed since they began to prosecute the young men
of the Parliament in Pressburg on account of the publication of the
Parliamentary journal. There was only one thing they could not find out,
viz:--who it was that originally produced the first edition to be
copied: at last one of his most intimate friends betrayed the young man
in question."

"That is ancient history already, my dear boy," said Madame Balnokhazy
in a tone of indifference.

"Yet its consequences have an influence even to this day; and I beg you
kindly to listen to my story to the end, and then pass a verdict on it.
You must know your men."

(What an innocent child Desiderius was! Why, he did not seem even to
suspect that the man of whom he spoke was the designated son-in-law of
Madame Balnokhazy.)

"The one, who was betrayed by his friend, was my brother Lorand, and the
one who betrayed his friend, was Gyali."

"That is not at all certain," said Madame. "In such cases appearances
and passion often prove deceptive mirrors. It is possible that someone
else betrayed Mr. Aronffy, perhaps some fickle woman, to whom he babbled
of all his secrets and who handed it on to her ambitious husband as a
means of supporting his own merits."

"I know positively that my assertion is correct," answered Desiderius,
"for a magnanimous lady, who guarded my brother with her fairy power,
hearing of this betrayal from her influential husband, informed Lorand
thereof in a letter written by her own hand."

Madame Balnokhazy bit her lips. The undeserved compliment smote her to
the heart. She was the magnanimous fairy, of whom Desiderius spoke, and
that fickle woman of whom she had spoken herself. The barrister was a
master of repartee.

Melanie, fortunately, did not hear this, for Lorand just then
entertained her with a wonderful story: how that, curiously enough, when
the young lady had been at Topandy's, the hyacinths had been covered
with lovely clusters of fairy bells, and how, one week later, their
place had been taken by ugly clusters of berries. How could flowers
change so suddenly?

"Very well," said Madame Balnokhazy, "let us admit that when Gyali and
Aronffy were students together, the one played the traitor on the other.
What happened then?"

"I only learned last night what really happened. That evening I was on a
visit to Lorand, and found Gyali there. They appeared to be joking. They
playfully disputed as to who, at