She had scarce time to change her travelling dress when supper was announced. The meal was laid on a large round table in the midst of a vast hall; there were more wine bottles than dishes; the handles of the knives and forks were made from the horns of elks and the antlers of stags,—the principal meats were cold venison, highly spiced and peppered stews and pickled galuska.[5]
[5] A sort of large dumpling.
"I am afraid this is only a hunter's repast, my lady!" opined Mr. Gerzson conducting Henrietta to the table, at which she and Clementina were the only ladies present. "Unfortunately this house has no mistress and an old bachelor like me must serve others as he himself is served."
"Then why don't you marry?" bantered Hátszegi.
"I wanted to once, but it all come to nothing. The bride was already chosen and the day for the bridal banquet was fixed. My lady bride was a fine handsome lassie. On the eve of my wedding day, in order that the business might not escape my memory, I told my heyduke to place by my bed in the morning my nice bright dress boots instead of my old hunting jacks. Very well! Early next morning while I was still on my back in bed, I heard a great barking and yelping in the garden below. 'What's the row?' I shouted. They told me the dogs had started a lynx out of the bushes. 'What! a lynx!' I cried, for a lynx, let me tell you, is a rare beast in these parts. I was out of bed in a twinkling, plunged into the nice dress boots, snatched my gun from the wall and was off into the thicket. I soon found the trail and after that lynx I went. The dogs led me further and further into the depths of the forest and the further I went the more fiery grew the pursuit. Once or twice I had a sort of feeling that I had forgotten something at home, and I felt myself all over, but no, powder horn, pipe case, tobacco pouch, flint, steel—everything was there. So on I went further and further. Again I felt bothered, but by this time the lynx quite carried me away with him and kept appearing and disappearing again in the most distracting fashion. Only towards evening did I hold its pelt in my hand and home with it I went straightway. And now, again, an oppressive feeling overcame me, just as if there was something wrong going on somewhere in the world which it was in my power to prevent. Only in the evening when I was pulling off my dress boots did it flash across me that I ought to have been present at my wedding that very day. And so matters remained as they were, for my bride was so angry with me for my forgetfulness that she went away and married a lawyer fellow. No doubt she got the right man, but since then I have had no desire for matrimony."
The company laughed heartily at this jest, and then attacked the patriarchal banquet with tremendous appetite, nor did they wait to be asked twice to fill their glasses. Henrietta, naturally, did not touch anything. Even at ordinary times she ate very little, but now there was nothing at all she fancied. Mr. Gerzson was in despair.
"My dear lady," said he, "you eat so little that if I were a day labourer I could easily support you on my wages."
The company laughed aloud at this. The idea of a day labourer with such hands and feet as that!
Then Gerzson proceeded to relate to them the exploits or misadventures in which his various limbs had more or less come to grief. "And now," concluded he, "I will tell your ladyship how I came by this scar on my forehead. A few years ago I was visiting our friend Leonard, your husband, my dear lady, at his castle at Hidvár, and whilst there we spent two weeks among the glaciers."
"Night and day?" enquired the astonished Henrietta.