He was specially celebrated for his melons. At the time of the melon-harvest, two great mastiffs guarded the melon-plot over which his bedroom window looked. In this garden all his spare time was spent. He was so busy one afternoon over his melon-beds, that he did not observe how his mastiff, who by day was chained up, was growling at a man who stood before the garden gate. He only became aware of the new-comer when the latter wished him good day. He looked round and saw a stranger dressed in the latest modish costume of Vienna, and finally, he recognised in the apparition his nephew, young Matyi. "Why bless me if it isn't my nephew Matyi. I hardly recognised you in this fashionable coat, I declare. But very welcome you are all the same." And the old man embraced his nephew heartily. "Ay, but you've become a man since I saw you last. You only want a moustache," and he looked at Ráby's smooth-shaven face critically. "But you are not in a hurry to be back in Vienna, I hope?" "Well, unless you want to send me away, I needn't be in a hurry to go back, as I could stay here all the winter," answered Ráby. "Well, don't talk to me about sending you off. I know well enough you are under someone else's orders." "Yes, uncle, under orders to stay here for some time." "Oh! I take it, you are here then for the taxation commission?" It was an office which had at that time but an unenviable reputation in Hungary. "More pressing business still," answered the young man with a smile, as he whispered something in the old gentleman's ear, which was evidently an important disclosure. The features of the old man relaxed. "Now that's something like; that's capital! Now I can reckon you a man. Only don't neglect the work." "Trust me!" "And then don't begin among the lesser folk, but get hold of the great people. Go straight to the prefect himself; he's the one to tackle. Ay, I could give you some good advice. Hear all, see all, and hold your tongue, as the saying goes. But you know all about that, and have no need of a plaster over your mouth." "Yet if I find the guilty, I shall not spare them, I warn you, whoever they be." "You will see, my boy," said the old gentleman, rubbing his hands, "if you tackle the prefect properly, you will be court judge of Visegrád, year in and year out." And he clapped his nephew on the shoulder. "What kind of a berth is it in Visegrád?" "Ay, my boy, that's the fattest plum in the neighbourhood; it's worth more than a hundred county court magistracies, and it happens to be just vacant." "How could I hope to get it?" "What a stiff-necked man it is to be sure! Didn't you get to Vienna? You don't surely reckon yourself among those people who let themselves be cajoled by the gift of a fine horse or a roll of ducats: a man like you is worthy a bigger bribe." The young man became suddenly crimson.