Bővebb ismertető
Chapter 1
It is remarkable how people regularly spend more than they ought
At the time a dashing regiment of Hussars was quartered in Trencsén*. This was a good thing for the pretty blonde slecinki and nevjesty (young ladies and girls of marriageable age) of Trencsén, as a regiment of foot too was stationed in that healthy town for fear of the cholera. There were so many officers with nothing to do that they came three at a time to pay court, even to ladies with freckled cheeks. But among all these many officers the most handsome was Ferenc Noszty, Second Lieutenant of Hussars: he was vivacious, frivolous, lively, a splendid horseman, a good fencer, good dancer and a great card-player. From all this it follows that he had great good fortune in love (of which many traces remained) and little luck at cards, the traces of which likewise remained in the form of unpaid notes of hand and promissory notes - officer's debts, with little chance of ever being paid back.
It had been a rousing winter and a spirited Carnival, and one ball had followed another in the huge reception hall of the restaurant known as the Big Donkey. Second Lieutenant Noszty was in love with the Mayor's daughter, Rozália Velkovics (a wonderful, delicate creature); he serenaded her every night after the festivities, sent her bouquets in the depths of winter, and it all costs money. He who is regularly in love feels embittered, and so he drinks, and if possible champagne, and that too costs money. A second lieutenant's pay, on the other hand, is a pittance, which is all the more a pity, as help from home flows but sparingly. The income of old Pál Noszty himself is heavily committed, but of course at this point we are not to know that. All that is presently known of the old gentleman is that he is a pillar of the Government party and that at one time his ancestors wielded power over life and death. He still has the executioner's sword, but nowadays they shell maize on its blunt edge down at Nosztaháza.
^ Then part of Hungary, now Trencin in Slovakia.
5