take much notice of it, and the fame of its fabulous wealth went hand in
hand with the rumour of a sordid avarice which was not a recommendable
quality in the eyes of the true gentry. The Lapussas were, in fact, not
of gentle blood at all, but simply rich. Madame Langai's elder brother,
John, was notoriously the greatest bore in the town, whom nobody, from
the members of his own family down to his coffee-house acquaintances,
could endure for a moment. Only his father made much of him. For all his
great wealth, he was very stingy and greedy; he even lent money at usury
to his best friends. Our amusing little friend Maksi was this man's son.
The slender, fanciful damsel, Henrietta, who appeared in that family
like an errant angel specially sent there to be tormented for the sins
of her whole race, was the orphan daughter of another son of old
Lapussa, who had lost father and mother at the same time in the most
tragical manner; they had both been drowned by the capsizing of a small
boat on the Danube. Henrietta herself had only been saved with the
utmost difficulty. She was only twelve years old at the time, and the
catastrophe had had such an effect upon her nerves that ever afterwards
she collapsed at the least sign of anger, and often fell a weeping for
no appreciable cause. Since the death of her parents, who had loved her
dearly, Henrietta had been obliged to live at her grandfather's house,
where nobody loved anybody.

But no, I am mistaken. She had a brother, Koloman by name, who was a
somewhat simple but thoroughly good-natured youth. He used to appear
very rarely among his relations because they always fell foul of him.
The poor fellow's sole fault was that he was in the habit of regularly
selling his new clothes. Still, I am doubtful, after all, whether this
can fairly be imputed to him as a fault at all, for although it was
always being dinned into his ears that his family was immensely rich, he
was never blessed with a penny to spend in amusing himself with his