"Ah, you have become a great man since those days."
"Were I ever so great a man, I would not allow my hand to be kissed by a lady."
"But I am no lady, you see."
"Nor am I a great man. And now please give me your hands that I may kiss them."
But the girl put both hands behind her back.
"No, for then should I be a lady indeed. Please be seated."
She motioned Ráby to the leather-covered sofa, and sat down again by the spinning-wheel, as she deftly began afresh to twist the flax into fine silky threads, so that they could talk if they wanted to.
The two maid-servants did not leave the room, but just listened to all that their mistress and her visitor said; it was but proper, they thought.
Ráby was meanwhile thinking how to baffle the maids. To this end he asked in German what she was doing?
The young girl gazed at him with her great blue eyes full of sorrowful amazement. Fancy expecting that in the household of the pronotary of Pesth, that stronghold of Magyar freedom, that anyone, much more the daughter of the house, should speak German! She lowered her eyes, and whispered timidly, "I do not understand German."