"I never troubled my head about them."
"Say that you forgive them."
"I don't want to flatter myself. I simply forgot them."
"Very well, now let us go on with our story. This poor family has had many heavy visitations of late."
Vértessy's face grew very grave.
"My dear, I am afraid your skein of silk will break asunder on my arms if you go on with such stories. Don't speak to me of the calamities of the Hétfalusy family. I am not at all interested in the happiness of these people, and if they are wretched I don't want to hear anything about it. They seem to have always been bent upon tempting Fate, so that it is not surprising if Fate at last has turned upon them. But I don't want to know anything about it. I am not good enough to grieve with them in their misfortunes, and I am not bad enough to rejoice in their misery. Leave the subject alone, my dear Cornelia."
Cornelia put down the little ball of silk, relieved her husband's arms of the skein, and then sitting beside him on a little stool, kept on stroking him with her tiny hands until she had quite smoothed out all the angry wrinkles on his face, and he had brightened up again and declared, like a good little boy, that he was not a bit put out and would listen to the story again.
"Poor Leonora! her married life was very unhappy."
"But she got what she wanted."
"It seems to me that you know more of my story than I do myself."