"You are quite right, my pretty dame, not everyone is fit for this business. A man must have a natural liking for it. I, for instance, would never take as an apprentice a man who had not spent some time in a dungeon, or cooled his heels in jail two or three times running in five or six years, for all the others are for ever wishing themselves back in polite society, and want to live in town. And then, too, they are always sighing and groaning and trying to make out that they are too good for the business. I don't like such people myself. Those who are likely to excel in this business show their teeth betimes. Those children who put out the eyes of birds, nail bats to barn doors, and love to shoot at little dogs, those are the sort of fellows from which apt pupils can be trained." "That is quite true. Why you, yourself, must be the son of a headsman, or else you would not know all the conditions of the trade so well." "You've hit it, that is just what I am. My father was an executioner and my grandfather before him, the business has steadily descended from father to son." "Where do you live then?" "In Poland. Rochow is where my father dwells. You must have guessed already from my accent that I was a Pole." "Yes, and from your face too." "My brother and I divided our heritage between us. He got the Rochow business and paid me out in cash that I might set up for myself elsewhere. I heard that the executioner of Hétfalu was getting sick of his office, for of course he is not growing younger, is he? Come, now! you silly little thing, you must not be angry with me for saying that! You know very well that your husband _is_ an old man, and there are lots of old men who have pretty young wives. There is no great harm in that. I only asked you whether he _was_ old, because in that case he would be more likely to seek for repose." "Yes, young sir, my husband loathes the business with all his soul." "But there's a great deal of fun in it too, if only you look at it properly. I have often gone to Lemberg togged up like a swell, with a fine jewelled pin in my scarf, a gold chain and a little whalebone stick in my hand. I have turned the heads of two or three fine ladies and insinuated myself into the best society--and what a joke it was when they found out who I really was. How pale they all went, and how their hair stood on end. Ha, ha, ha!" "But didn't they make you pay for it afterwards?" "Well, once I was called out by a young cadet. Officers of higher rank thought it beneath their dignity to fight with me, the utmost they did was to pitch me out of the window. The lad who challenged me was a Hungarian, and I promised to appear at the rendezvous. I am afraid, however, that he waited for me a very long time. I like to shed blood, but only when I run no risk myself." All three laughed heartily at this witticism.