The Poor Plutocrats

ho yawned so,

y ans

, and diamond, turquoise, and ruby rings on his fingers. He was reclining on an atlas ottoman, his face was as wooden as a mummy's, a mere patch-work of wrinkles, he had a dry, thi

dly behind my back just now?" he asked again

e, with just such a strongly-pronounced pointed nose, with just such high raised eyebrows as the old gentleman's, only her face was still red (though the favour of Nature had not much to do

ied with some sort of sewing. At another little sewing-table, immediately opposite to her, was a red-cheeked damsel with a frightful mop of light hair and a figure which h

had cinder-coloured ringlets around her temples and a little bit of beard on her chin. She was no blood relation of the family but, as an ancient companion to a former mistress of the ho

s possible and driving them to desperation by his unendurable nagging and chiding; they, on the other hand, had by

m going away by laying hold of it. The gate is not closed. Nothing easier than to be off. Yet nobody likes the idea, eh? Ah-ha! It is possible that when the eye of old Lapussa no longer sees, the heart of old Lapussa may no longer remember. Besides, nobody can tell exactly when the old man may die. Indeed they are waiting for his death every hour-he is beyond eighty already. A most awful bore certainl

eutenant of

rds more terribly, he there and

continued working beads into her sampler, the governess went on reading, and the old spinster wa

o see from the countenances of those present (he could observe them in the mirror opposite) whether his allusion to h

hed the sofa and th

dinn

d of the awe-in

rather, suspected, some slight

ooking out of the window again? I am bound, Miss, to direct your attention t

pa.....!" beg

Miss Kleary in this house, I pay Miss Kleary a princely salary, in order that I may have some one at hand to whom I can explain my educational ideas. Now my educational ideas are good; nay, Miss

s rose defiantly from her place, and in order that she might wreak her anger upon some one, indus

had the right to speak; the only right the

to hammer with his fists on the door, that very door at which the oldest and most trusty domestics hardly da

on, the old gentleman's sp

. "Open the door for little Maksi; don't you know that he is not tall enough to

but with the authentic family nose and the appurtenances thereof, which took up so much room as to seriously imperil the prospects of the rest of the head growing in proportion.

little Maksi? Has anyb

to take it away, that Maksi had thereupon drawn his weapon and made the aggressor's hand smart with it, and that finally

-quite red in fact! Put some opodeldoc on it! Clementina, do you hear?-some opodeldoc for Maksi!" So the family medicament had to be fetched at o

ready with an excuse: "Maksi must not be vexed," said he. "Does not Maksi wear

lad defiantly, "I

ss than a general, of course. But come, my

ght she saw an opportunity of i

eral, must, first of a

earning it. I say, grandpapa, if you've lots of money, you

oked around hi

all genius, w

rchin's head to his breast and murmured: "Ah!

gravated all the others

n tasted each one of the dishes with the aid of his finger-tips, and not one of them pleased him. This was too salt, that was too sweet, a third was burnt, a fourth was tainted. He threatened to discharge the cook, and bitterly complained that as he did not die quickly enough for them, they were conspir

with me, Maksi

horror, grabbing at everything

and signalled to the footman that he was to put all the dishes carefully away, as he should want to see them again on the morrow. The footman conscientiously obeyed this command-

; indeed, they held it in such horror that they used regularly to distribute it among the poor. In order therefore that the very beggars might have nothing to thank

e. At first he had expected her to remain in the same room with him till nine o'clock every evening, dealing out cards for him or boring herself to death in some other way for his amu

ared at her wi

heatre?"

ave order

I hope you will

less than her elder brother; but nevertheless she went to the theatre regularly every day, a

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;

sely rich, he was never blessed with a penny to spend in amusing himself with his comrades, and therefore had to do the best he could to raise the wind. Another failing of Koloman's was that he would not learn Latin, and in consequence thereof he had to suffer many things. Old Lapussa and his son John indeed had no notion whatever of the Latin tongue. The former in his youthful days had never gone to school at all, because he was occupied in building up a business. The lat

ough the genders, declensions, conjugations, or whatever else the infernal things were called; and the end of it all was that, at last, she

for a much more important event claims our attention-Mr. J

the dimensions of the family nose were made still more remarkable by an inordinately tiny chin and thin compressed lips. His moustache was shaved down to the very corners of his mouth, only a little mouse-tail sort of arrangement being left on each side, which was twisted upwards and dyed black with infinite skill. His costume was elegant and ultra-refine

d his back. Then he suddenly caught sight of his father, kissed his hand and resumed his dignified

was the fir

nour!" s

sked, lifting his

for your shirt front which you

I am afraid Clementina was a poor physiognomist, she might have noticed from his face how utterly ind

mentina's scissors from the work-table and deliberately snipped into little bits the whole of the difficult piece of work which the worthy wo

d the old man in

I am mad! When I am wroth! Whe

u angry, an

ng himself into an armchair, crossed his legs, plunged his hands into the

furi

tter?" enquired the

er the arm of the chair: "It is all that good-for-nothing Hátsz

has he

lls. At least I have always supposed so. I entered his ante-chamber and there stood a flunkey. He told me I must wait! Told me forsooth-me, John Lapussa-that I must cool my heels in an ante-chamber, at an inn, to please that wretched Hátszegi. Very well. I waited. I sent him a message that I would wait. Meanwhile I found I could not sit down anywhere, for th

old man also

not box his e

a Lapussa packing! It cannot be overlooked. I shall immed

street, but give a street-porter ten shillings to cudgel h

gentlemanly manner must be shown that I can revenge myself like a ge

by this bragging, or rather all except Madame Langai, who was getting

ce. "Matilda," he asked, "what do you say?

that if anyone angers you another time you had better expend your wrath upon him be

s promenade with his hands behind his back snorting fur

to do?" the old man called aft

ll warrant you," and he b

n he was mad enough already?" he cried. "What will you gain by his death? He has a so

ly went on tying h

d is capable of facing a whole army. We must prevent this duel somehow. And you are actually preparin

age," replied Madame Langai bitterly. "And I am as little afraid of John's rhodomon

ady, and Madame Langai, adjusting her mantilla, went to