"About a quarter of an hour's walk from here, in the forest, near the same lake, on the banks of which I had fallen asleep."
"Then it was upon my own soil--I am glad of that."
"You seem really to be deeply interested in the fair mother and her still fairer daughter. I recollect now that the child was much too beautiful for a boy. How does the gypsy woman get the name of the nut-brown countess?"
"Ah," laughed Melitta. "That is a long story, and one of those foolish undertakings of mine, in which I sympathize with you. It is now about six years since Isabel came for the first time into this district. She was then about twenty years old--perhaps, for she herself does not know her age accurately. Her child, the Czika, was four years old, that she knew, for she was her own child and not a stolen princess."
"From the striking likeness between mother and daughter, which must have struck you also. Both of them were at that time extremely beautiful; in fact, I have never seen anything like it. I do not think any one could have remained unmoved by the sight of this youthful mother with her magnificent child, which in the theatrical costume and the dark, abundant curls might pass as easily for a boy as for a girl. I have seen the like of it only in Murillo's paintings, with their sunny glow and fierce passion. It so happens that I fancy I know something of picturesque beauty, and try my hand occasionally at painting myself--so they set me drawing all day long, and I went to work on gypsy heads from morning till evening. I forgot to tell you that I kept the two gypsies for a few days here at Berkow. On one of these days I was obliged to give a large party. And--now comes the folly of the thing--in order to get a joke a tour absurd people here, I dressed Isabel up in the richest costume that I possessed, and handed the Czika over to my chambermaid, to deck her out, and then I introduced the two as the Countess of Kryvan, with her little daughter Czika, whose acquaintance I had made the year before at a watering-place, and who had just arrived from Hungary to pay me a visit."
"They were delighted. I had previously made it known that Isabella belonged to the old Magyar nobility, who had pledged themselves never to use any other language but the national tongue, and occasionally a little Latin."