CHAPTER IV.
A FAMILY CURSE.
In those days there lived at Pressburg a famous family, if the sad fate of becoming a by-word in the community can be indeed considered fame.
They called themselves Meyer, a name borne by so many people that nobody would care to adopt it unless obliged to.
The father was a counting-house clerk in a public institution, and blessed with five beautiful daughters.

In 1818 two of the girls were already grown up--the queens of every ball, the toasted beauties of every public entertainment.

The greatest dandies, nay, even magnates, delighted to dance with them, and they were universally known as "the pretty Meyer girls." How their father and mother rejoiced in their beauty! And these pretty girls, these universal _belles_, were brought up in a manner befitting their superiority.

No sordid work, no domestic occupations for them! No, they were brought up luxuriously, splendidly; their vocation was something higher than the dull round of household duties.

They were sent to first-class educational establishments, instead of to the national schools in the neighbourhood, where they were taught to embroider exquisitely, sing elegantly, and acquire other lady-like accomplishments.