"I did not incur this large debt myself, the culprit was another lieutenant, a friend of mine, a rich and distinguished young fellow. He got me to write my name to a bill as guarantor of the amount. He was still a minor. I wrote my name, of course--what did I know about it? Suddenly, when my young friend got over head and ears in difficulties, he blew his brains out. His father refused to pay the bill, and so I inherited it from his creditors. Since then I have been paying and paying, but the debt, instead of diminishing, increases, and the terrible _boa conscriptor_ winds itself tighter and tighter round my body."
A boa conscriptor indeed, was this gigantic conscriptor[96] serpent!
[Footnote 96: A translation of the Hungarian word _Osszeiro_, which means a conscript or schedule of anything, _here_ a schedule of debts.]
At this we all three laughed again, which was rather odd, for there was nothing at all to laugh at.
The long and the short of it all was that after discharging her lover's debts, and depositing the caution-money, my ward Bessy still had twenty-five thousand florins left.
"All right," said she, "that's just why I asked you to be my guardian, for if the money remains in my hands, every bit of it will vanish by the end of the year."
"The wonder is owing to the fact that my mother inhibited the payment of the amount to me, and this embargo can only be removed when I am married to a man of rank and honour."
"You'll have to be very economical in your housekeeping," I said, "not to exceed your income."
"There's Kvatopil's pay, too, and as a cavalry officer he is entitled to free unfurnished quarters."
"And you'll be able to put up with an officer's free quarters?" I said.
"You know very well that to such things" ... (I saw that she meant to say, "I am used to such things," and I pulled a wry face. She rightly understood from my pantomime that it would be scarcely _proper_ to mention the events of "Anno Rengetegi" in the presence of her Royal and Imperial[97] bridegroom, so, with theatrical _savoir-faire_, she passed in an instant from the impudent nonchalance of a _vivandière_ to the tender cooing of a turtle-dove) ... "true love is always ready to sacrifice itself." And with an enchanting smile she extended her hand to her bridegroom, who raised it with tender enthusiasm to his lips. They were just like turtle-doves.