entina up the narrow staircase.

They had to pass through the long tap-room before they came to the inner
parlour. At the guest table were sitting three hardy looking young
fellows and an old pock-marked man, a foxey-eyed rascal who drank out of
the others' glasses from time to time and kept the conversation going.

"Come! shut up, Ripa!" said the landlady to the old man. "This is no
Jew-Madame, but the spouse of my lord, Baron Hatszegi. Show your manners
if you have any and thank her for the honour."

The old rascal rose from his bench with cunning humility and twisting up
both ends of his gray moustache, politely kissed Henrietta's hand, and
would have paid the same compliment to Clementina if the landlady had
not prevented him by shouting: "Leave her alone, she is only a sort of
servant!"

With that she led the ladies into the inner room, where were two lofty
bedsteads reaching to the beams above, covered with bright bedding and
prettily painted over with tulips and roses. In the window screens were
wide-spreading rosemary and musk plants. In front of one of the great
chests stood a spinning wheel. From this the landlady, winter and
summer, spun off that fine thread from which were woven those bright and
gay handkerchiefs which could be seen bobbing about in the doorway of
the inn from afar. One would never have expected to find such ease and
comfort in a _csarda_ of the _puszta_.

The landlady very politely divested Henrietta of her travelling clothes,
made a soft resting place for her with cushions in an arm-chair, put a
stool beneath her feet, and in less time than it took to draw a breath,
totted up ten different kinds of dishes that she might choose from them
the one she liked best. Perhaps she would like some leaf-cake? It was
just cooking and would be served up immediately, and she began spreading
the table with a nice horse-cloth. Clementina whispered Henrietta to
beware of poison, whereupon Henrietta told the landlady that she _would_
have a bit of that nice dish, and when it came she really enjoyed it,
though she did not know what it was, at which the landlady was
infinitely pleased.

Meanwhile Hatszegi came in after seeing that the carriages were put into
a dry place. He took no notice of the poor vagabonds, but hastily
demanded a change of clothes, as his own were soaking, and was amazed to
see Henrietta handling her knife and fork so well; it was the first time
on the whole journey that she had eat