The Poor Plutocrats | Page 9

of things that children
should hear."
When they had all withdrawn except Madame Langai, Demetrius again
questioned his son: "Now then, what about this affair, this rencontre
with Hátszegi; did you challenge him, did you meet him?"
"Eh? Oh--yes! Naturally. Of course I sought him out, I have only just
come from him. We have been making a night of it together at the
Queen of England. I can honestly say that he is a splendid fellow, a
gallant, charming gentleman. He has really noble qualities. I am going
to bring him here this afternoon. You shall all see him. Even you will
like him, Matilda. But now, adieu, I must really have a little sleep, we
were drinking champagne together all night. Oh, he is a magnificent, a

truly magnificent character."
Mr. Demetrius said not a word in reply, but he compressed his thin lips
and wagged his head a good deal. Nobody made any observation. Mr.
John was allowed to go to bed according to his desire. A little time
after he had withdrawn, however, the old man said to Madame Langai:
"What are you doing Matilda?"
"I am trying to guess a rebus which has just appeared in 'The Iris.'"
"Don't you think that what John has just said is rather odd?"
"I have not troubled my head about it one way or the other."
"I can see through it though. John wants to pay off Hátszegi in his own
coin. He has invited him here this afternoon in order to keep him
waiting in the ante-chamber, and then send him word that he can't see
him till to-morrow. Oh! Jack is a sly lad, a very sly lad, but I can see
through him. I can see through him."
* * * * *
Mr. John passed the whole afternoon in his father's room; he did not
even go to his club. No doubt he was awaiting his opportunity for
revenge. He amused himself by sitting down beside his niece, stroking
her hand, admiring the whiteness of her skin, and, drawing the
governess into the conversation, enquired how Henrietta was getting on
with her studies, whether she had still much to learn in English and
French, and whether she was not, by this time, quite a virtuoso at the
piano. He insinuated at the same time that it would be just as well,
perhaps, if she made haste to learn all that was necessary as soon as
possible, because she was no longer a child, and when once a woman is
married she has not very much time for study.
"By the way, Henrietta," he added suddenly, "have you chosen a lover
yet?"
Henrietta was too much afraid of him even to blush at this question, she

only glanced at him with timid, suspicious eyes and said nothing.
"Don't be afraid, sisterkin," continued Mr. John encouragingly. "I'll
bring you such a nice bridegroom that even your grandpapa, when he
sees him, will snatch up his crutches in order to go and meet him
half-way." Here the old man growled something which John smothered
with a laugh. "Yes, and if he won't give you up we'll carry you off by
force."
Henrietta shuddered once or twice at her uncle's blandishments, like
one who has to swallow a loathsome medicine and has caught a whiff
of it beforehand.
The porter interrupted this cheerful family chat by announcing that his
lordship Baron Hátszegi wished to pay his respects to Mr. Lapussa.
Mr. Demetrius immediately raised himself on his elbows to read from
Mr. John's features what he was going to do. Would he tell the lacqueys
to turn Hátszegi out of the house? or would he send him word to wait in
the ante-chamber, as he himself had waited at Hátszegi's, and then put
him off till the morrow? Oh! John would be sure to do something of the
sort, for a very proud fellow was John.
But, so far from doing any of these things, Mr. John rushed to the door
to meet the arriving guest and greeted him aloud from afar in the most
obliging, not to say obsequious, terms, bidding him come in without
ceremony and not make a stranger of himself. And with that he passed
his arm through the arm of his distinguished guest and, radiant with joy,
drew him into the midst of the domestic sanctum sanctorum and
presenting him in a voice that trembled with emotion: "His lordship,
Baron Leonard Hátszegi, my very dear friend!"
And then he was guilty of the impropriety of introducing his guest first
of all to his father and his niece, simply because they happened to be
the nearest, only afterward he bethought him of turning towards
Matilda to introduce her, whereupon Matilda's face assumed a stony
expression like