"My neighbor says my horse is blind in one eye. Nonsense! He can see the road just as well with one eye as with two."
Then up he got, and began to follow them, and Madame Krisbay, leaving go of Mrs. Mravucsán's arm, and in her fright forgetting her wounded shoulder, took to her heels and ran. The dancers seeing her went into fits of laughter at the pair of thin legs she showed.
"How on earth can she run so fast with such thin legs?" they asked each other.
Still more surprised were Veronica and Gyuri (who had seen nothing of the incident with the wagoner); they could not imagine why the sick woman was running at the top of her speed.
"Madame! madame! What is the matter?"
She gave no answer, only rushed to the Mravucsáns' house, where she again had a fright at the sight of three enormous watch-dogs, who received her with furious barks. She would have fallen in a faint on the floor, but at that moment Mravucsán appeared on the scene to receive his guests, so she fell into his arms instead. The good mayor just held her quietly, with astonished looks, for he had never yet seen a fainting woman, though he had heard they ought to be sprinkled with water, but how was he to go for water? Then he remembered he had heard that pinching was a good remedy, that it would, in fact, wake a dead woman; but in order to pinch a person, she must have some flesh, and Madame Krisbay had nothing but bones. So he waited with Christian patience till the others arrived on the scene, and then gave her up to their tender mercies.
"Phew!" he breathed, "what a relief!"