"But, my dear sir, I have important business to get through."
"Never mind, you must come in for a minute," and with that he opened the door and all but pushed the young man into the other room.
"My dear young lady," he called out over Gyuri's shoulder, "I have brought you your earring!"
At these words a young girl turned from her occupation of putting cold-water bandages on the shoulder of an elderly lady, lying on a sofa. Gyuri was not prepared for this apparition, and felt as confused and uncomfortable as though he had committed some indiscretion. The elder woman, partly undressed, was lying on a sofa, her wounded right shoulder (a remarkably bony one) was bare. The young man at the door stammered some apology, and turned to go, but Mravucsán held him back.
"Don't go," he said, "they won't bite you!"
The young girl, who had a very pretty attractive face, hastened to throw a cloak over her companion, and sprang up from her kneeling position beside the lady. What a figure she had! It seemed to Gyuri as though a lily, in all its simple grandeur, had risen before him.
"This gentleman has found your earring, and brought it you back, my dear."
A smile broke over her face (it was as though a ray of sunlight had found its way into the mayor's dark office), she blushed a little, and then made a courtesy, a real schoolgirl courtesy, awkward, and yet with something of grace in it.
"Thank you, sir, for your kindness. I am doubly glad to have found it, for I had given up all idea of ever seeing it again."
And taking it in her hand she gazed at it lovingly. She was a child still, you could see it in every movement. Gyuri felt he ought to say something, but found no suitable words.