CHAPTER I.
THE SUPPER AT THE MRAVUCSÁNS'
I am not fond of drawing things out to too great a length, so will only give a short description of the Mravucsáns' supper, which was really excellent, and if any one were discontented, it could only have been Madame Krisbay, who burned her mouth severely when eating of the first dish, which was lamb with paprika.
"Oh," she exclaimed, "something is pricking my throat!"
But the pudding she found still less to her taste (a plain paste rolled out very thin, and cut into squares, boiled and served up with curds and whey, and small squares of fried bacon).
"Mon Dieu!" she said, "it looks like small bits of wet linen!"
Poor Mrs. Mravucsán was inconsolable at her guest's want of appetite.
"It is such a disgrace for me," she said.
Then it occurred to her to offer her some of her preserved fruit, and to this madame seemed to take a fancy, for she finished up the dish, and in proportion as her hunger was appeased, her liking for her surroundings increased.
She had the Lutheran clergyman, Sámuel Rafanidesz, on her right, and the schoolmaster, Teofil Klempa, on her left, and to them was deputed the task of entertaining the unfortunate foreigner. Their invitations had been put in this form:
"You must come, for there is to be a German lady at supper, whom you are to entertain."