"'Love's Pearls'! And pray what are they?"
"Lovely poems to a beautiful girl."
"And did he get the girl?"
"No, he did not."
"Well, now, that is a nice thing. A fellow courts a girl, puts his feelings into verse, finally gets a basket[13] from her, and then demands that this basket should be filled for him with silver pieces."
[13] The Hungarian "Kosarat kapni," like the German "einen Korb bekommen" (to get a basket), is the equivalent of our "to get a flea in one's ear," i.e., "a rejection."
The same day I sent her Petöfi's "Love's Pearls," and his "Cypress Leaves" also.
I resumed my portrait painting three days afterwards, and immediately asked her whether she had taken up "Love's Pearls."
"Oh, yes; I took them up to dry flowers in them."
"But I suppose you've just dipped into the 'Cypress Leaves'?"