s.

"Quick, quick, into the house!" cried Hatszegi. The baron himself helped
his wife and Clementina to descend and hurried them in beneath the
verandah, which was made of crooked branches and hung over the kitchen
door like a shade over the forehead of a weak-sighted man.

On their approach the woman of the house emerged from the kitchen with
her head tied up in a red handkerchief. She was no longer young, but
ruddy, robust, bright-eyed, and bustling, and as full of sparkle as if
she had just sprung out of the fire.

On perceiving her guests she clapped her hands together.

"Lord deliver us, if it isn't his lordship! And only just married now,
eh!--after all these years! But which is the bride, your lordship?
Surely not this one (pointing to Clementina) for she is an old
dear!--and yet the other is but a child!"

The baron hastened to interrupt this uncalled-for outburst.

"Come, come, my good woman! No chatter now, please, for the hail will be
upon us in a moment; but take these ladies into a room and see that it
is clean and comfortable. Henrietta! pray get out of the rain."

The _csarda_[10] woman kissed Henrietta's hand with great familiarity
and kept on saying in a quavering voice: "Oh, thou tender little
creature! to think of giving them to husbands so early!" cried she. But
Clementina, who was always nervous in strange places, called the baron's
attention to the fact that loud masculine voices were proceeding from
somewhere within the _csarda_.

[Footnote 10: Inn.]

"Have you anyone here now?" enquired the baron of the _csarda_ woman.

"Yes, three or four lads and _Ripa_. The old fellow has just been
released from the prison at Arad. I don't know whether he served his
full time. Pray walk in!"

"They are not robbers, are they?" asked Clementina hesitating.

"No, dear heart alive, there are no robbers in these parts, but only
poor vagabonds. You will not find robbers nearer than the Bakony forest.
These poor fellows hurt nobody, least of all ladies. I don't count old
Ripa at all, but only the other three. It would be another thing if
Blackey were here, for he is a fine gentleman and likes to amuse
himself with the ladies. But don't think, dear soul, that his features
are black, oh, dear, no! I call him 'Blackey' because he always wears a
mask of black velvet lest he should be recognized, only his eyes and
mouth are ever visible."

And with such comforting assurances she escorted Henrietta and
Clem