Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/234

220 HUNGARIAN LITERAT URE As so often happens with very poetica! natures, his acts were guided by his imagination rather than by his reason. His decision once made, he set off to Szalonta as though driven homeward by an irresistible instinct. It happened to be the actors' pay-day, and Ara ny waited in the street, until the manager came, when he asked for a small instalment of his monthly salary of twenty­ five florins, but was as hamed to announce his deter­ mination to leave the stage for ever. He packed his few belongings in a handkerchi ef, bought for a few kreuzers a small loaf and some bacon, cut a staff in the forest, and started for home on foot. Noontide found him on the high road, and towards sunset he reached the beech forests, where he fell in with a long line of carts carrying salt from Rónaszék. To those who questioned bim he replied in Wallachian that he was making for home because he was ill. The carters halted for the night at the top of a bill, where th ey unharnessed their horses and made a large fire in the warmth of which they allowed the poor strolling actor to sleep. At dawn he arose, and with a hasty farewell to his rough companions, resu med his journey. Next night he arríved at a roadside inn, and the landlord gave bim per­ mission to sleep on a wooden bench, beneath the bare bran ches of a tree, with his hundie containing the loaf of bread for a pillow. The succeeding nights were spent in a somewhat similar way. Yet the roving student-actor did not despair amidst his hardships. His heart was full of songs of youth and love. He was consciaus of the romance of his wandering, as weil as of its fatigue. Soon the hills were left behind and his way led through