‘I suspected something of the sort but I didn’t know what was going on as for some time Laszlo has taken care to avoid me. However, if it’s all been done legally and Laszlo accepts it, I don’t see how it can be put right.’

‘But it can!’ interrupted Dodo triumphantly. ‘Don’t you see? The one who’s done all this to Laszlo is your agent. He’s called Azbej, or some such name. That’s why I’ve come to you. If you intervene, if you threaten him … why, he could go to prison for such villainy!’

‘Kristof Azbej? You really mean him, my mother’s lawyer? There are lots of people of that name?’

‘Oh, yes, it’s quite certain! They met at your place, at Denestornya.’ Dodo laughed: ‘…and that stupid Laszlo has even been led to believe that Azbej has made a great sacrifice to help him. Look, I’ve written down all the details as Gyeroffy related them to me. I think I’ve got them right!’

She handed him a folded sheet of writing paper.

‘Something will be done about this. You can be sure of that,’ said Balint as soon as he had read Dodo’s notes, all his natural instinct to help others, that instinct that had caused him so much trouble in the past, now fully awakened. ‘I’ll send for the fellow at once. It’s unheard-of – and to one of our own relations on top of it all. I’m deeply grateful, Countess Dodo, that you’ve told me all this.’

‘It’s I who will thank you, if you do something!’ replied Dodo, blushing deeply as if she had inadvertently said something indecent. Then she got up abruptly and hurried into the big drawing-room.

The young man remained for a moment standing in the centre of the room. Through the wide-open double doors he watched the girl go up to her mother and put her hand on her shoulder. The old lady got up at once and the two of them said their farewells and left.

‘That Dodo is a nice, clever girl,’ thought Balint. ‘How good she would be for Laszlo! She’d keep him in order all right!’ Then he turned his thoughts to Azbej, deciding that he would send a telegram summoning the man to come and see him. Then he would question him and if he discovered that what he had been told was true, then, and only then, would he tell his mother. It was unthinkable that one of her trusted employees should do such a monstrous thing. The man should be thrown out at once.

The same afternoon he sent a wire to Azbej at Denestornya: ‘COME IMMEDIATELY’.

In the morning there was no sign of the man but after lunch Countess Roza asked her son, ‘You have sent for Azbej? May I ask why?’

Balint was somewhat surprised by the question, wondering if someone was spying on him by reading his telegrams. His tone in replying was therefore rather more short than was called for. ‘Yes, I have something to ask him.’

‘Well, what is it? Is it about the forests or about your constituency?’

‘Neither, Mama. I want to ask him about something quite different. I’m not even sure it really concerns us at all.’

‘And I would like to know why you have sent for one of my employees. After all, I think I have a right to know,’ interrupted Countess Roza coldly, and turned on the sofa so that she was facing her son. Clearly she was expecting a full account, and so Balint found himself forced, contrary to his instinct and intention, to tell her what he had heard about the lease of Gyeroffy’s property.

As he was telling the story to his mother he glanced at the two housekeepers, thinking that it was really rather a mistake to discuss such matters in front of them.