Melanie could tell many new things to Czipra which the latter delighted to hear.
There was one thing which they had touched on once or twice jestingly, and which Czipra would have particularly loved to extract from her.
Melanie, now and again forgetting herself, would sigh deeply.
"Did that sigh speak to someone afar off?"
Or when at dinner she left the daintiest titbit on her plate.
"Did some one think just now of some one far away, who is perhaps famishing?"
"Oh, that 'some one' is not famishing"—whispered Melanie in answer.
So there was "somebody" after all.
That made Czipra glad.
That evening during the conversation she introduced the subject.