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Some good spirit must have whispered to this fellow not to laugh at these words, for he could not have anticipated the box on the ears I would have given him, because he could not for an instant forget that I was a grammar-school boy, and he a first-year law student. One evening Lorand came to me and laid before me a bundle of papers covered with fine writing.
Not one of the dead, though her robe is white: one far worse than they: a beautiful woman. It was Hermine who opened the door and entered Lorand's room so silently, with inaudible steps. Her ball-robe was on her: she had dressed for the dance in her room above, and thus dressed had descended. "Are you ready now, Lorand?" "Oh, good evening: pardon me. I will light a candle in a moment."
Mother, leaning on Lorand's shoulder, came with us to the gate whispering every kind of tender word to him; thrice she embraced and kissed him. And then came my turn. She embraced me and kissed me on the cheek, then tremblingly whispered in my ear these words: "My darling boy, take care of your brother Lorand!"
Lorand was standing there with clasped hands between his two dear dead ones. On the morrow at dawn Lorand rose for his journey and stepped into the cart with a closed lead coffin. So he took home his dead bride. The second letter which Topándy had written to his mother, the sealing of which had sealed his own fate, had not been posted, and could not have prepared them for his coming.
"As soon as mother's answer comes back." "And if your mother opposes the marriage?" "I shall answer for that." "Still it is possible. She may have other aims for you. What should you do then?" "Then?" said Lorand reflectively: after a long pause he added: "Poor mother has had so much sorrow on my account." "I know that." "She has pardoned me all." "She loves you better than her other son."
Then, trusting to the hurrying servants to bring her travelling rugs and belongings after her, she ascended into the castle, without further waste of words, leaving Lorand alone with Topándy. Topándy turned to the young fellow with his usual satirical humor. "Well, fellow, you've got a fine recommendation! An expelled student; that's saying a good deal.
"If it were only a joke? It is true: a very heavy truth! I promised Lorand to tell neither mother nor grandmother, for ten years, where he is living." Grandmother seemed to understand it all: she hinted with a look to Fanny to leave us alone: she thought that I did not wish to reveal it before Fanny. "Don't go Fanny," I said to her.
"I thank you that you chose my home as a place of refuge from your prosecutors, my dear Lorand; but there is no need longer to keep in hiding. Later events have long washed out what happened ten years ago, and you may return to the world without being disturbed." "I have known that long since: why, we read the newspapers; but I prefer to remain here. I am quite satisfied with this world."
I hunted up everything in the way of a souvenir which I had still from those days ten years before when I had parted from Lorand, even down to that last scrap of paper, which now occupied my every thought. It would have been labor lost on my part to tell the ladies how bad the roads in the lowlands are at that time of year, that in any case Lorand would come to them a day later.
"But you know that as the challenged, I have the right to choose weapons and method." "Do so." "And you will find it quite natural that I have no intention of being pummelled into a loaf of bread and devoured by you. I recommend the American duel. Let us put our names into a hat and he whose name is drawn is compelled to shoot himself." Lorand was staggered. He recalled that night in the crypt.
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