"Leave me now," she whispered; but her eyes seemed to say, "Come again, soon!"
Mathias Ráby knew now that fate had led him to a kindred soul at last!
CHAPTER XIV.
Were this story a romance pure and simple, it would suffice to tell that Fräulein Fruzsinka had fire in her eyes, and Mr. Mathias but a heart of wax, that, consequently, when they met, the one melted the other.
But since this history is, in the main, a true narrative, we do not think it should be supposed that such was the case. Mathias Ráby being a diplomatist as well as a philosopher, did not seek in the lady of his dreams a Venus Anadyomene, but rather a fully equipped Minerva, and he thought that he had before him a high-minded woman, whose insight penetrated the evil intentions of his enemies, and whose hands should serve to set him free from the snares their wickedness had woven around him. To save such a woman from a degrading position was in itself surely a knightly and a noble deed. And what a splendid help would it not be to him, in the struggle that lay before him, to choose such a companion, who could circumvent the designs of his enemies, and be to him a guardian angel as well as a helpmate.
So it came about that one day Mathias Ráby sought out his uncle, Mr. Leányfalvy, with this request.
"I have come, my dear uncle, to remind you of your promise. I need a 'best man.'"
"A 'best man'? All right, my boy, I'm ready; let's have the horses put to."
"It won't be necessary; it is only at the other end of the city. It is to the prefecture I want to go."