Count Kengyelesy did not bring his wife with him: the little rogue on
her husband's departure declared that she was ill and remained
behind--_verbum sap_!
Henrietta was very much occupied by the duties of hospitality. She took
a pride in anticipating the wants of all her guests, and at the evening
_soirees_ she played the part of hostess with becoming _aplomb_.
One day the gentlemen with their beaters, rangers, dogs, and carts, had
all gone off to the forest as usual, and Henrietta was left alone in the
castle with Clementina, Margari, and the domestics. As for Margari, he
would not have gone to the woods for all the bears in the world.
Clementina, solemnly cackling gossip as usual, imparted to Henrietta
that the night before, when the gentlemen played at cards, the luck had
run dead against Hatszegi: Count Kengyelesy had won back from him the
whole of the Kengyelesy estate. "Thank God!" sighed Henrietta at this
glad intelligence. This was one of the things that had weighed down her
heart like a nightmare, one of the partition-walls, so to speak, which
had hitherto separated her from her husband. This, at any rate, had now
disappeared.
Clementina went on to say that my lord baron had not cared a straw for
this loss; nay, he had laughed and said that it only showed how lucky he
was in love. Henrietta applied the saying to herself and began to be
quite proud of it.
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