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needs a lesson in good manners!’ And Pityu took him up by saying ‚ ‘Indeed I’m most grateful for your telling me how to behave. You, who have always moved in the most exalted circles!’ Whereupon Adam Alvinczy said, extremely solemnly, ‘We should all follow your commands, naturally!’ and his brother Akos chimed his agreement.
    Then it was the turn of Uncle Ambrus who, taking Gyeroffy by the arm, bellowed out, ‘All these young fellows here are as raw as bear-cubs. Of course they’ve not had your advantages. They’ve never been anywhere or seen anything, unlike you who was used to hob-nobbing with all the big-wigs in Budapest!’
    And they all crowded round Laszlo, bowing obsequiously and winking all the time at each other. Then someone said, ‘It must have been marvellous, that court ball you told us of – the one for the King of Serbia!’
    It never occurred to Laszlo that his friend had mentioned the wrong king on purpose.
    ‘It was the King of Spain, not Serbia,’ said Laszlo. ‘Alfonso XIII, who is nephew to the Archduke Friedrich. You really should know these things and get them right …’ and he launched into one of his favourite subjects, waving his arms with the unsteady but self-important gestures of the very drunk.
    Dawn was beginning to break as they approached the main square. They had almost reached the Town Hall when Gyeroffy stopped the whole group with a peremptory wave of his hand.
    ‘Now we’re here, it’s my turn to give a serenade!’ he said, and called to the gypsies to get ready and have the table and chairs put on the sidewalk.
    Ever since they had left the Uzdy villa Laszlo had been thinking of ordering a serenade himself, regardless of the fact, which never even occurred to him, that he only had some twenty crowns in his pocket. Now he felt himself to be a grand seigneur , high above everyone else, and this was his chance to set them an example and show them all how these things should be done. The problem was to decide where, and to whom. It was not as if he were paying court to anyone in the town, either to a young marriageable girl or to a married woman. On the days that he happened to come to town from his home at Szamos-Kozard, with a few coins in his pocket from the sale of some cucumbers or lettuce, he would put in an appearance at whatever festivity was going on, dance if it were a ball or pay calls and drink coffee and whipped cream at a house where there were young girls on the market, play the piano if anyone asked him; but he would do all this mechanically, hardly noticing where he was or what he was doing. Although he was still so good-looking that more than one girl would try to make eyes at him, he took no notice and indeed was barely aware that he had made a conquest and had an opportunity for flirtation. It was all the same to him whether he sat next to one girl or another. When invited to sit down and talk he would do so partly because good manners demanded it but mainly out of torpor. Now he had no idea to whom he should offer a serenade.
    As they happened to be in front of the small town palais of the Gyalakuthys, which stood just across from the road from the Laczok house where they had been earlier, he decided on impulse that this must be the place.
    Dodo Gyalakuthy was a nice little thing, a good girl who loved music and who, when he called at the house, always asked him to play. Now, as he tried to collect his thoughts and concentrate , he remembered that she always talked to him very nicely, asking him all sorts of questions about many things, about music, for instance, and his life in the country. Why not Dodo? Yes, he would play his serenade for her!

    It was about five o’clock when Dodo was awakened for the second time that night. How odd! she thought. The Laczok girls are getting two serenades on the same night. They are lucky!
    Dodo never thought the music might be for her, for the simple reason that it never was. None of the young men would