be in the rear. The
country was fairly pretty, but nothing remarkable; fine scenery under
the circumstances would have been quite superfluous, for the dust was
two feet deep in the road, and the heels of four horses scampering along
raised such a cloud of it that we could see next to nothing.

We had not proceeded far when the speed sensibly relaxed; I fancy the
horses went slower that they might listen to what the driver had to say,
he talked to them the whole time. He was not communicative to me; his
knowledge of German seemed limited to the bargaining process, a lesson
often repeated, I suspect. As time wore on the heat became almost
tropical; as for the dust, I felt as if I had swallowed a sandbank, and
was joyful at the near prospect of quenching my thirst at Weisskirchen,
now visible in the distance.

Hungarian towns look like overgrown villages that have never made up
their minds seriously to become towns. The houses are mostly of one
story, standing each one alone, with the gable-end, blank and
windowless, towards the road. This is probably a relic of Orientalism.

Getting up full speed as we approached the town, we clattered noisily
over the crown of the causeway, and suddenly making a sharp turn, found
ourselves in the courtyard of the inn.

I inquired how long we were to remain here; "A small half-hour," was the
driver's answer. This was my first experience of a Wallack's idea of
time, if indeed they have any ideas on the subject beyond the rising and
the setting of the sun.

I strolled about the place, but there was not much to be done in the
time, and I got very tired of waiting: the "half-hour" was anything but
"small;" however, one must be somewhere, and in Hungary waiting comes a
good deal into the day's work. I was rather afraid my Wallack was
indulging too freely in _slivovitz_--otherwise plum-brandy--a special
weakness of theirs; but after an intolerable delay we got off at last.

Soon after leaving the town we came upon an encampment of gipsies; their
tents looked picturesque enough in the distance, but on nearer approach
the illusion was entirely dispelled. In appearance they were little
better than savages; children even of ten years of age, lean, mop-headed
creatures, were to be seen running about absolutely naked. As Mark Twain
said, "they wore nothing but a smile," but the smile was a grimace to
try to extract coppers from the traveller. Two miles farther on we came
upon fourteen carts of