the person with whom I form a compact."

"Well, that can also be done in this instance!" promptly responded the
baroness, proffering, without affectation of maidenly coyness, the
ceremonial kiss, and cordially shaking hands with the vice-palatine.
Then she said:

"We are now Bernat _bácsi_, and Katinka; and as that is happily
arranged, I will ask the gentlemen to go into the agent's office and
conclude our official business. Meanwhile, I shall make my toilet for
dinner, where we will all meet again."

"What a perfectly charming woman!" exclaimed the justice, when their
hostess had vanished from the room.

"I wonder what would happen," observed the doctor, with a malicious
grin, "if the vice-palatine's wife should hear of that kiss? Would n't
there be a row, though!"

The heroic descendant of the Scythians at these words became seriously
alarmed.

"The Herr Doctor, I trust, will be honorable enough not to gossip about
it," he said meekly.

"Oh, you may rest without fear, so far as _I_ am concerned; but I
would n't say as much for the surveyor, here. If ever he should succeed
in getting beyond 'I say,' I won't answer for the safety of your secret,
Herr Vice-palatine! When your wife hears, moreover, that it is 'Bernat'
and 'Katinka' up here, it will require something besides an anecdote to