ression I infer your thought. I have heard my father say that a man
should not send off the same day a letter written under excitement,
but should lay it under his pillow and sleep on it. The advice is not
bad. Do not send your letter off before morning; in fact I will not
send it to-night."

Beldi complied with the old man's advice. He put the letter under his
pillow, lay down, fell asleep and dreamed. In his dream he was happy
with his wife and children. The noise of a wagon passing by in the
morning awakened him. The first thing that his hand touched was his
letter to Banfy. He broke it open, read it through again, and--was
very much ashamed that he had written anything of the kind.

"Where was your understanding, Beldi?" he asked himself with a smile,
tore the letter in two and threw it into the fire. "How they would
have laughed at you!" he thought. "They would have said you were an
old fool to whom it had occurred late in life to be jealous of the
mother of his children on account of a kiss given by a man in his
cups and received against the lady's will." What a weapon he would
have given Banfy if he had announced that he was not sure of his wife
on Banfy's account. "We will go straight to Bodola," he said gently to
his servant when he entered, and then he took leave of his host.

"And what about the letter you were going to send?" asked Gyergyai
with concern.

"I have already conveyed it--to the flames!" replied Beldi, smiling,
and went on his way with his feelings quite changed. As he approached
Bodola he noticed from a distance the members of his family who had
been watching for him from the castle balcony; as soon as they
recognized his carriage they hurried down to meet him. When he reached
the foot of the castle hill there they all were,--his wife and
children; they threw themselves on his neck with cries of joy and he
kissed each one several times over, but especially his dear devoted
wife on whom he feasted his eyes. It seemed to him that her eyes were
brighter, her face more charming, her lips sweeter than ever. "What
fools men are!" thought Beldi. "When they do not see their wives they
are ready to believe everything bad of them, and when they do see them
they forget it all."

He was so abandoned to his joy that he did not observe that there was
a stranger in the family circle, but the stranger made haste to
attract his attention. He was Feriz Bey, a handsome, well-built young
Turk, with frank, nob