"You come very seldom to Pesth," said the young countess, with a reassuring smile.
"It is some time since I have been here; but I understand this is your first visit, countess. You have never lived in Pesth?"
Angela's face assumed its cold expression; she felt sure he was going to inquire for Prince Theobald.
"I do not see," she said, in a sarcastic voice, "what it is to any one whether I have ever been in Pesth."
"It is not an uncommon accident," returned Ivan, quietly, "that a man visits a place where he has never been before; but when many people meet in the same spot, it looks as if there was something more than accident in such a gathering; and in this instance, where so many brilliant personages are brought together, it seems as if Providence had more to do with it than mere chance."
At these words Angela's face cleared. "Then you believe in Providence? you acknowledge there is such a thing as Divine ordinance?"
"Undoubtedly, I do believe."
"Then we shall be friends." She turned away as she spoke, and Ivan took this movement as a signal to retire.
After a quarter of an hour's further waiting, Edmund came to tell him that everything was in readiness in the lecture-room, and the company had already gathered there in considerable numbers. Ivan, therefore, ascended the stage, which had been erected at the farther end of the large room, and, holding his papers in his hand, addressed his audience. He had a pleasant voice, his manner of address was perfectly unaffected, composed, and taking. From the first moment he held the attention of the audience—his subject was Magnetism.