"You said it, John, you did indeed; but you were angry, and at such
times a man says more than he means."
"So far from being a robber or a vagabond," replied John, "he is one of
the principal landowners in the Hatszegi district. How _could_ I have
said such things! He has a castle that is like a fortress. He is like a
prince, a veritable prince in his own domains. He is just like a petty
sovereign. I must have been downright mad to call him a vagabond. . . ."
"Yet, yesterday, you would have called him out," continued Madame Langai
teasingly.
"Yes, I was angry with him then, but there are circumstances which may
reconcile a couple of would-be duellists, are there not?"
"Oh, certainly, if a man is a man of business before all things, or has
perhaps a valuable house or two on his hands."
"This has nothing to do with business or selling houses. If you must
know," he continued, lowering his voice, "it is about something entirely
different, but of the very greatest importance."
"Indeed?" returned Madame Langai, "a new Alexander the Great, I suppose,
who has gone forth to conquer, and who has come to look not for a house,
but for a house and home perhaps?"
She thought to herself that it was some adventurer whom her brother
John would palm off upon her as a husband so as to get her away from the
old man.
"Something of the sort," replied John.
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