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 to his family; that he was the descendant of those Hlohovskys who founded the castle; that Andrew, and not Countess Felsenburk, was the lawful heir.

After supper it was customary for the people of the Palace to sit around the fireplace; the women spun and the men smoked. The butler plunged into the cellar by the kitchen and reappeared with two pewter pitchers full of foaming black beer, which he and the stewardess had made. The beverage went around, and, warming the heads of the group, untied their tongues. In the flushed brains recollections then awoke. One thought of this, another of that; so the long winter evenings passed by almost in a twinkling. Only Andrew, sitting somewhere in a remote corner, never knew anything with which to amuse others, and besides he was never asked to do so. In that way the Hlohov people showed their indifference to his wisdom. If the fire on the hearth blazed up brightly, and the light strayed to his corner, it illuminated a face always melancholy, always deathly pale.