The Poor Plutocrats | Page 9

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 A little time after he had withdrawn, however, the old man said to Madame Langai: "What are you doing Matilda?"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 H��tszegi 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 H��tszegi 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 H��tszegi out of the house? or would he send him word to wait in the ante-chamber, as he himself had waited at H��tszegi'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 H��tszegi, 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 that of the marble maiden in Zampa, to the great confusion of John, who felt bound to enquire in a half-whisper: "Why, what's the matter?"
"You dolt," she whispered back, "have you not learnt yet that the lady of the house should be introduced to her guests not last, but first?"
John's first impulse was to be shocked, his second was to be furious, but finally he thought it best to turn with a smile to Baron H��tszegi, who courteously helped him out of his embarrassment by observing: "It is my privilege to be able to greet your ladyship as an old acquaintance already. Many a time have I had the opportunity of secretly admiring you in your box at the theatre."
"Pray be seated, sir...!"
CHAPTER III
AN AMIABLE MAN
Baron H��tszegi was certainly a very amiable man. He had a handsome face full of manly pride, sparkling