Although but a
child, she will never take any wine unless you force her to do so. I
earnestly beg of you to take great care of her. I don't like this
journey a bit. A letter would have done the business just as well; but I
make it a rule never to thwart her when she gets these ideas into her
head. All I say is: take care of her."
"I'll watch over her as if she were my own child."
In a quarter of an hour Henrietta appeared in full travelling costume.
The lacquey brought in breakfast. The gentlemen also sat down to it lest
the lady should breakfast alone.
"We shall have splendid weather, Baroness," observed Mr. Gerzson,
dipping his cake into his black coffee. "The sky is full of stars, we
could not wish for better travelling weather."
"The sky is nice enough, but the ground is a little stumbly," put in
Hatszegi. "Around Dombhegyhaza in particular the roads will spill you if
you don't look out."
"I don't care a bit, for I mean to drive the horses myself."
"Oh, that I will not allow," said Henrietta. "It is no joke to hold the
reins, for hours at a stretch, on bad roads."
"I do it because I like it, your ladyship. You know I love my pipe, and
how can I smoke it in a covered carriage?"
Shortly afterwards Mr. Gerzson asked leave to go out and inspect the
coach and the coachman, and after closely investigating everything and
wrangling a little with the coachman, purely from traditional habit,
just to show the fellow that he understood all about it, he ascended to
the drawing-room again and announced that the horses had been put to.
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