"Enfin!" cried he, "I verily believe the old chap means to live for ever!"
CHAPTER VIII.
AN UNEXPECTED CHANGE.
A month later John Kárpáthy was to be met with once more at Pressburg. It made him angry now when people called him "Master Jock."
A great change had come over the Nabob both externally and internally. His frame had grown so meagre of late that he was unable to wear his former clothes; the fiery flush had disappeared from his face, the drunken puffiness from around his eyes; he spoke gravely with his fellow-men, busied himself about political and national matters, looked into the affairs of his own estates, sought out trustworthy stewards and bailiffs, renounced riotous pastimes, spoke sensibly and intelligibly at the Diet; nobody could imagine what had come to him all at once.
He had one favourite, Mike Kis, who was to be seen with him in every public place. Very often they encountered Abellino, and on all such occasions the Nabob and the Whitsun King would look at each other and smile and whisper as if they were planning some design against Abellino, as if they held in their hands some humorous trump card which would turn the tables gloriously upon the waggish coffin-sender. For all the young roués were still greatly amused at Abellino's masterpiece. The old bucks, on the other hand, had
rather more difficulty in grasping the humour of it.