"I'll never do it again, never, I assure you. Only do talk," pleaded Gyuri.

"Do the butterflies really interest you?"

"Upon my honor, they interest one more at this moment than lions and tigers."

"I think butterflies are so pretty—like a beautifully dressed woman. And what tasteful combinations of color! I always look at their wings as though they were so many patterns of materials. For instance, look at a Hebe, with its black and red under-wings, do not they match beautifully with the yellow and blue-top wings! And then the Tiger, with its brown and yellow-spotted dress! Believe me, the renowned Worth might with advantage take a walk in the woods, and learn the art of combining shades from the butterflies."

"Gently, Wladin!" called out Mrs. Szliminszky at this moment. "How many lungs have you? A three-kreutzer stamp is sufficient for local letters."

Wladin and Senator Fajka were wondering how matters would stand if they were both very deaf, and Wladin was talking so loudly that his loving spouse felt bound to put in a word of remonstrance, and request him to have some respect for his lungs.

"They are quite close to each other, and yet they shout as though they were trying to persuade some one not to put a fifteen-kreutzer stamp on a local letter. Oh dear! When will people be more sensible?"

At that moment, Senator Konopka rose and drank to the health of the host, the "regenerator" of Bábaszék. He spoke in exactly the same thin, piping voice as Mr. Mravucsán; when the guests closed their eyes, they really believed the master of the house himself was speaking, and sounding his own praises; of course this caused great amusement. Upon that up sprang the mayor, and answered the toast in Konopka's voice, with just the same grimaces and movements he always made, and the merriment rose in proportion. Kings do this too in another form, for at meetings and banquets they pay each other the compliment of dressing up in each other's uniforms; and yet no one thinks of laughing at them.

Toast succeeded toast.

"You have let the dogs loose now," whispered Fajka to Konopka.