[12] In summer, the coachman's dress is a coloured vest over a white linen garment with wide sleeves embroidered round the neck and shoulders; also wide linen drawers with fringes, and a broad hat decorated with feathers.
"Oh, Miss Linka!" cried another, "see what a handsome young cavalier has just got down off the box! and now he is helping out a fine lady and a little rosy girl. That is a youth for a bridegroom, Miss Lina."
But Miss Lina was very angry. "What are you all chattering about?" she exclaimed; "you had far better attend to your dishes."
They had scarcely turned from the window, when another sound excited their curiosity. The galloping of a horse was heard in the court; and presently afterwards, a voice, talking in an affected tone through the nose, addressed the old gentleman, who had come to the door to receive his guests.
"Permit me to introduce myself as Kalman Sos," said the horseman, "come to pay my respects"—
As Linka heard these words, she threw the egg-shells into the dish instead of the yolk, and snatching the Regelo from her pocket, without further reflection, she threw it into the fire.
"What have you done, Miss Linka?" exclaimed the portly cook; "all your burnt paper has got into my dishes."
And to put the comble to her distress, the old gentleman entered, his face beaming with pleasure, and, going maliciously up to his daughter, he looked in her face, and smiled knowingly without saying a word, while the poor girl only wished that the floor might open by some miracle and permit her to sink into the cellar.
"Do you want anything, dearest papa?" she ventured at last to ask.
"I do not want you to stay in the kitchen!"