Will you, Herr Vice-palatine
and Colonel, undertake this mission for me?"
"Of all my missions this will be the most agreeable!" heartily responded
Herr Bernat.
"You know to whom I would have you go," resumed the count. "It is not
far from here. You know who the lady is without my repeating her name.
Go to her, tell her what you have seen and heard here,--I send her my
secret as a betrothal gift,--and then ask her to send me an answer to
the words she heard me speak on a certain eventful occasion."
"You may trust me!" with alacrity responded Herr Bernat. "Within half
an hour I shall return with a reply: _Veni, vidi, vici!_"
After he had shaken hands with his client, the worthy emissary
remembered that it was becoming for even so important a personage as a
Hungarian vice-palatine to show some respect to the distinguished young
lady under Count Vavel's protection. He therefore turned toward her,
brought his spurred heels together, and was on the point of making a
suitable speech, accompanying it with a deep bow, when the young lady
frustrated his ceremonious design by coming quickly toward him and
saying in her frank, girlish manner:
"He who goes on a matrimonial mission must wear a nosegay.
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