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Updated: June 18, 2025
I made a mistake; it is the music, the composition, that is so horrible. I wonder who composed it? 'I did." Herr Bernat was charmed completely vanquished. This count not only smoked: he could also relate an anecdote! Truly he was a man worth knowing a gentleman from crown to sole.
"The Herr Count awaits your lordship in the salon," announced the groom, and conducted Herr Bernat into the adjoining chamber. Here, too, the furniture was white and gold. The oil-paintings in the rococo frames represented landscapes, fruit pieces, and game; there was not a portrait among them. Beside the oval table with tigers' feet stood the mysterious occupant of the Nameless Castle.
"Yes, but I did not forbid you to tell Marie, Herr Count," responded Katharina. "'Baroness' 'Herr Count'?" repeated Marie, turning questioningly from her guardian to their fair neighbor. "Why don't you call each other by your Christian names?" They were spared an explanation by Herr Bernat, who again observed: "Robbers? I confess I should like to hear about this robbery?"
"Why 'he, Bernat bácsi." "I? Why, what business is it of mine?" "The authorities ought to inquire who strangers are, and where they come from. And such an authority is 'he' Bernat bácsi!" "Hum; does 'she' take me to be a detective?" "But you surely have a right to demand to see his passport?" "Passport?
To those with whom we are on terms of intimacy we say 'he' or 'she, to which we add, if we wish, the words bácsi, or hugom, which are equivalent to 'cousin." "And do you never say 'thou' to your wife?" "To her also I say 'she' or 'you." "What a singular country! Well, then, Bernat bácsi, if it pleases 'him, will 'he' sit here by me?"
Herr Bernat was perplexed; he did not know what to do next. Was it not quite natural to ask the name of a man's wife when a legal contract was to be written? His question, therefore, had not been an insult. At last, as the count did not return, there was nothing left for Herr Bernat to do but go to his room and wait there for further developments.
Toward the conclusion of the excellent dinner, to which Herr Bernat did ample justice, he ventured to propose a toast: "I cannot refrain, Herr Count, from drinking to the welfare of this castle's mistress; and since I do not know whether there be one or two, I lift a glass in each hand. Vivant!"
"That was our first meeting," concluded Katharina laughingly, laying her hand on that of her betrothed husband, who was leaning against the arm of her chair. "I should like to know why you both thought it best to keep this robbery a secret?" remarked Herr Bernat. "The real reason," explained Count Vavel, "was because the baroness did not want her protégé, Satan Laczi's wife, persecuted."
By the time the meal was over Herr Bernat was in a most generous mood; and when he took leave of his agreeable host, he assured him that the occupants of the Nameless Castle might always depend on the protection and good will of the vice-palatine.
"It is no secret for me, and I am allowed to repeat it. The charming lady Count Vavel intends to wed is Katharina Landsknechtsschild!" The baroness suddenly dropped her embroidery, sprang to her feet, and surveyed the smiling emissary with her brows drawn into a frown. "It is quite true," continued Herr Bernat.
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