Behind him stands the old heyduke Palko in a laced dolman.

He is just as old as they are.
All three have grown up together, all three have grown old together; and now, too, Palko is as familiar with his honour as he used to be in the days when they played and fought together in the courtyard.

The old fellow's head is grey now, but not a hair of it has he lost, and its flowing abundance is brushed backwards and kept in its place by a circular comb; his moustache is more pointed than a shoemaker's awl, and waxed to a fearful extent at both ends; his features are so simple that a skilful artist could have hit them off in three strokes, only the colouring would have given him something to think about, for it is a little difficult to paint-in blood-red on scarlet.
"Would his honour," said Peter, standing by the table, "be graciously pleased to cast his eyes over these accounts?
I have made so bold as to most humbly make out a brief summary thereof, that his honour may find the examination a little easier." And with that he beckoned to Palko to put down the documents.
The latter venomously banged down the whole bundle on the table, but he could not refrain from observing, "What a shame to spoil such a lot of nice clean paper by scribbling on it!" "You speak like a fool," growled Master Jock.
"It would be all the same, so far as your honour is concerned, if they put blank paper before your honour; for they don't pay the slightest attention to what your honour says.

It is not enough to know that they _do_ rob you; I should also like to know how much they rob you of." "Come, come, my heart's best son, what do you mean by talking to your master like that?
Look now! you shall look through all the accounts along with me, from beginning to end, so just stand behind my chair, and hold your tongue." "I am ready to eat up all that your honour looks through," murmured the old servant to himself.
Thereupon Master Jock, with commendable determination, extended his hand towards the top-most bundle lying before him, which contained the accounts of his agent Janos Karlats, and began fumbling about with it till he arrived at the conviction that he could make neither head nor tail of it, whereupon he handed it back to Mr.Peter, who immediately found the schedule he was looking for.
"This is a schedule of the income and expenditure of your Kakadi estate." And now, reader, let us listen.

You may find it a trifle tedious, perhaps, but you could not have a better opportunity of seeing how the estates of the Nabob were administered.
"With your honour's gracious permission, I would beg to call your attention to a few notes in the margin concerning the exact position of affairs, if your honour will listen to them." Master Jock intimated that he would undertake to do as much as that.
"To begin, then, the Kakadi estate this year yielded twelve thousand bushels of pure wheat, consequently, the richest soil scarcely produced sufficient grain to pay for the expense of cultivating it." "It was a bad year, you know," objected Master Jock.