Dr. Dumanys Wife

Dr. Dumany's Wife

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Translated by F. Steinitz
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Title: Dr. Dumany's Wife
Author: Mór Jókai

Release Date: June 28, 2006 [eBook #18708]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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DUMANY'S WIFE***
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Works of Maurus Jókai Hungarian Edition

DR. DUMANY'S WIFE
Translated from the Hungarian by F. STEINITZ

New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1891

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
This, the latest story from the pen of Hungary's great man of letters,
Maurus Jókai, was translated directly from the manuscript of the author
by Mme. F. Steinitz, who resides in Buda-Pest, and was selected by
him for that purpose.
Maurus Jókai is now sixty-six years of age, having been born at
Komaróm, in 1825. He was intended for the law, that having been his
father's profession but at twelve years of age the desire to write seized
him. Some of his stories fell into the hands of the lawyer in whose
office he was studying, who read them, and was so struck by their
originality and talent that he published them at once at his own expense.
The public was as well pleased with the book as the lawyer had been
with the manuscripts, and from that tender age to the present Jókai has
devoted himself to writing, and is the author of several hundred
successful volumes. At the age of twenty-three he laid down his pen
long enough to get married, his bride being Rosa Laborfalvi, the then
leading Hungarian actress. At the end of a year he joined the
Revolutionists, and buckled on the sword of the patriot. He was taken
prisoner and sentenced to be shot, when his bride appeared upon the
scene with her pockets full of the money she had made by the sale of
her jewels, and, bribing the guards, escaped with her husband into the
birch woods, where they hid in caves and slept on leaves, all the time in
danger of their lives, until they finally found their way to Buda-Pest
and liberty. This city Jókai has made his home; in the winter he lives in
the heart of the town, in the summer just far enough outside of it to
have a house surrounded by grounds, where he can sit out of doors in
the shade of his own trees. He is probably the best-known man in

Hungary to-day, for he is not only an author, but a financier, a
statesman, and a journalist as well.

CONTENTS.

PART I.
I. THE DUMB CHILD II. THE DARK GOD III. THE ENGLISHMAN
IV. THE NABOB V. A REPUBLICAN COUNTESS VI. DUMANY
KORNEL VII. THE DEAD MAN'S VOTE VIII. MY UNCLE
DIOGENES IX. A SLAVONIC KINGDOM X. "DEAD" XI. MY
DEAR FRIEND SIEGFRIED XII. THE DEVIL'S HOOF XIII. THE
VALKYRS

PART II.
I. THE SEA-DOVE II. "WHAT IS THE DEVIL LIKE?" III. THE
FOUR-LEAVED CLOVER IV. THE HISTORY OF MY FRIEND V.
HOW ROSES ARE INOCULATED VI. MR. PARASITE VII. A
BRILLIANT GAME VIII. A BITING KISS IX. WHO IS THE
VISITOR? X. AFTER THE WEDDING XI. MY SCHEME XII.
SEEKING FOR DEATH XIII. MY DISCHARGE XIV. HOME!
SWEET HOME XV. VOX POPULI XVI. DAME FORTUNE XVII.
LIGHT AT LAST

DR. DUMANY'S WIFE.

Part I.

I.
THE DUMB CHILD.
It was about the close of the year 1876 when, on my road to Paris, I
boarded the St. Gothard railway-train. Travellers coming from Italy had
already taken possession of the sleeping-car compartments, and I owed
it solely to the virtue of an extraordinarily large tip that I was at last
able to stretch my weary limbs upon the little sofa of a half-coupé. It
was not a very comfortable resting-place, inasmuch as this carriage was
the very last in an immensely long train, and one must be indeed fond
of rocking to enjoy the incessant shaking, jostling, and rattling in this
portion of the train. But still it was much preferable to the crowded
carriages, peopled with old women carrying babies, giggling maidens,
snoring or smoking men, and hilarious children; so I made the best of it,
and prepared for a doze.
The guard came in to look at my ticket, and, pitying my lonely
condition, he opened a conversation. He told me that the son of an
immensely wealthy American nabob, with an escort well-nigh princely,
was travelling on the same train to Paris. He had with him an