"Well, my master has again burdened me with a guest who thinks the clock strikes midday in the evening. It was a pity he did not invite him for yesterday, in that case he might have turned up to-day. Why, I ought to begin cooking everything afresh.
"I may say, he is a fine bridegroom for a young lady, who lets people wait for him. If I were the bridegroom of such a beautiful young lady, I should come to dinner half a day earlier, not half a day later. There will be nice scenes, if he has his cooking ever done at home. But of course at Vienna that is not the case, everybody lives on restaurant fare. There one may dine at six in the afternoon. At any rate, what midday diners leave is served up again for the benefit of later comers:—thanks, very much."
Finally the last bark which Mistress Boris did not deign even to notice from the kitchen, heralded the approach of manly footsteps in the verandah: and when in answer to the bell Mistress Boris rushed to the door, to her great astonishment she beheld, not the gentleman from Vienna, but the one from across the way, with a strange young gentleman.
"May I speak with the master?" inquired Lorand of the fiery Amazon.
"Of course. He is within. Haven't you brought the gentleman from Vienna?"
"He will only come after dinner," said Lorand, who dared to jest even with Mistress Boris.
Then they went in, leaving Mistress Boris behind, the prey of doubt.
"Was it real or in jest? What do they want here? Why did they not bring him whom they took away? Will they remain here long?"
The whole party had gathered in the grand salon.
They too thought that the steps they heard brought the one they were expecting—and very impatiently too.