which only one man believes,--honorable Sarvoelgyi. If you accept his
offer, you will be a lady of position, if not, you can come with me as a
wandering actress. We can take our revenge upon them, for they hate
Sarvoelgyi too. And after all Sarvoelgyi is a very pleasant fellow.'--And
surely Melanie was jesting when two days later she said to the priest
before the altar that in the whole world there was only one man whom she
could deem worthy of her love, and he was Sarvoelgyi.--I believe it was
all a jest--but so it happened."

Lorand covered his face with his hands.

"A jest indeed, a fine jest fit to stir one's blood," Topandy angrily
burst out. "That girl, whom I so loved, whom I treated as my child, who
was to me an image of what they call womanly purity, throws herself away
upon my most detested enemy, a loathsome corpse, whose body, soul, and
spirit had already decayed. Why if she had returned broken-hearted to
me, and said, 'I have erred,' I should have still received her with open
arms: she should not thus have prostituted the feeling which I held for
her.

"Oh, my friend, there is nothing more repulsive in this round world,
than a woman who can make herself thus loathed."

Lorand's silence gave assent to this sentence.

"And now follows the madness I committed.

"I said: if you jest, let me jest too. My house was at that moment full
of gay companions, who were helping me to curse. But what is the value
of curses? A mad idea occurred to me. I said: 'If you are holding a
marriage feast yonder, I shall hold one here.' You remember there was an
old mangled-eared ass, used by the shepherd to carry the hides of
slaughtered oxen, called by my servants, out of ridicule, Sarvoelgyi.
Then there was a beautiful thoroughbred colt, which Melanie chose
betimes to bear her name. I dressed the ass and foal up as bridegroom
and bride, one of the drunken revellers dressed as a 'monk' and at the
same time that Sarvoelgyi and Melanie went to their wedding, here, in my
courtyard, I parodied the holy ceremony in the persons of those two
animals."

Lorand was horror stricken.

"It was a mad idea: I acknowledge it," continued Topandy. "To ridicule
religious ceremonies! That will cost me two years at least in the county
prison: I shall not defend myself--I have deserved it. I shall put up
with it. I knew it when I carried out this raving jest--I knew what the
outcome would be. But if they had promised me all the good things t