A shudder ran through Henrietta's body at these words. The very air of the room was all at once difficult to breathe, and she only felt better when she sat in the carriage again. But even there she was haunted by some unendurable, undefinable, torturing feeling which struck her still more unpleasantly when Clementina remarked: "Yes, there is nothing but good land on this puszta."
Why, what could it matter to the honest creature whether the land was good or not, it was surely all one to her?
"Two thousand acres in one lot, nothing but first-class land."
"How do you know that?" asked Henrietta.
"Margari told me he drew up the agreement and witnessed it, and yet no money was paid down."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Did not your ladyship then understand the allusion the count made just now when he asked you to love your husband a little more than hitherto?"
"What has such nonsense to do with me?"
"He meant by that that he who is unlucky in love is lucky at play; for last night my lord baron played cards with my lord count and won from him the whole Kengyelesy estate straight off."
Henrietta felt like one who is in the embrace of the boa-constrictor and unable to defend himself. She had not expected this.