st at the unexpected question, then answered
hurriedly:

"No, of course not, how can you think of such a thing? What was I to
give? Besides, he would not accept anything."

"I am surprised at that, for he has since then applied to me for a
reward."

"Impossible!" said Veronica, casting a side-glance at Gyuri. Strange
doubts had arisen in her mind, and her heart began to beat.

"And what does he ask for?" she asked in a low voice.

"He wants a good deal. He asks for the earring he found, and with it its
owner. And I have promised him both!"

Veronica bent her head; her face was suffused with burning blushes, her
bosom heaved.

"Well? Do you give no answer? Did I do right to promise, Veronica?"

Gyuri took a step toward her, and said, in a low, pleading voice:

"Only one word, Miss Veronica!" then stood back under the shade of the
pear-tree.

"Oh! I am so ashamed!" said Veronica trembling, and bursting into tears.

A breeze came up just then across the Brana, and shook the pear-tree,
which shed its white petals, probably the last the old tree would bear,
over Veronica's dress.

CHAPTER II.

THREE SPARKS.

Madame sits in the carriage, and can understand nothing of what is going
on. The young lady entrusted to her charge springs out of the carriage,
runs up to a strange man in a long black coat, throws her arms round his
neck, and then they all begin to talk with excited gestures, standing
under the pear-tree. Then her pupil comes back to the carriage, mild as
a lamb, arm in arm with the young man who had found her earring
yesterday. All of this is so unexpected, so surprising. And while they
are mending the broken shaft and reharnessing the horses, the man in the
black coat, who turns out to be the girl's brother, turns to her and
whispers in her ear:

"Your pupil has just engaged herself!"

Good gracious! When and where? Why, now, under the tree! Ah, Madame
Krisbay, you feel you ought to faint now, partly because you are a
correct woman, and consequently horrified at the way the event has taken
place, and partly because you have fallen among such strange people;
but your bottle of Eau de Cologne is quite at the bottom of your
travelling-bag, and so it will be better not to faint now. But it is
very shocking all the same! For though a tree is suitable for flirting
under, or for declarations of love, it is not the correct place to ask a
parent or guardian for a girl's hand. The proper place for