Timéa let the work fall, and gazed before her, sighing again, "Thrice!"
The gold thread slipped out of the needle's eye.
As Timar went down the path, he came once more to the two marble pillars which supported the veranda. With what rage he struck them! Did those above feel the shock! Did not the tottering walls warn them to pray, because the roof was falling in on them?
But they were laughing at the mystified child, who worked so diligently at her wedding-dress.
CHAPTER VI.
ANOTHER JEST.
The newly ennobled Herr von Levetinczy was already, not only in Hungary but in Vienna, a famous person. He was said to be a "golden man." Everything he touched turned to gold, all he undertook became a gold mine; and this is the real gold mine.
The science of the gold digger consists in finding out earlier than his rivals what large affairs are in contemplation by the government; and in this art Timar was a past master. If he took up any speculation, a whole swarm of speculators threw themselves upon it, for they knew money was to be had there for the picking up.
But it was not only on that account that Timar was called a "golden man," but also for quite another reason.
He never swindled or defrauded any one.