Complete Works of Henryk Sienkiewicz

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

  But when Beethoven placed his hands upon his head, there awakened within him better and higher instincts. He saw during the performance the lips and eyebrows of the young lady contract, and began to concede that “she, however, felt something.” In consequence of this, his ill-will towards her began to melt away, although slowly and with difficulty. He half confirmed, half conjectured that not only the hands but also the soul played. He did not have sufficient culture for music to appeal to him as it did, for instance, to Gronski, nevertheless there awakened within him a certain dismal consciousness that this was something, like the air, which all breasts can breathe, regardless of whether they love or hate. Amazement seized him at the thought that there were things lying beyond the swarm of human passions. At the conclusion he so identified music with the figure of the playing girl that when the old notary, at the end of the concert, kissed her hands, he almost felt inclined to do the same.

  In the meanwhile, Ladislaus said to Miss Anney:

  “As long as Jastrzeb has been Jastrzeb, never yet has such music been heard. I am not a connoisseur, but must admit that this has captivated me. Besides, though I am often in the city, it has always so happened that I never have had an opportunity of seeing a woman play on the violin. And this is so beautiful that I now have an impression that only women should play the violin.”

  “One gets such an impression when he hears Marynia play.”

  “Assuredly. I even begin to understand Pan Gronski. You, of course, know that she is his adoration?”

  “The greatest in the world. And mine and everybody’s who knows her, — and soon she will be yours.”

  “I do not deny that she will be, only I doubt whether she will be the greatest.”

  A temporary pause in the conversation followed, after which Ladislaus, not desiring that Miss Anney should take his words as an untimely compliment, added:

  “In any event, I owe her gratitude for music which is slightly different from that which we hear every evening in spring and summer.”

  “What kind of music is that?”

  “From dusk to moon-rise the orchestra of frogs, and afterwards the concert of nightingales, which, after all, I do not hear, as, after daily toil, I am sound asleep. The frog band has already commenced. This also has its charm. If you care to hear it, let us go out upon the veranda. The night is almost as warm as in summer.”

  Miss Anney rose and together they went on the veranda, which the servants, who listened under the windows to Marynia’s performance, had already left, and only in the distance the blooming jasmines, shaded by the dusk, whitened. From the pond came the croakings of the confederation of frogs, drowsy and, at the same time, resembling choral prayers.

  Miss Anney for a while listened to these sounds and afterwards said:

  “Yes, this also has its charm, particularly on a night like this.”

  “Are not nights the same in England?”

  “No, not as quiet. There is hardly a corner there to which the whistling of locomotives or the factory noises do not reach. I like your villages for their quiet and their distance from the cities.”

  “So, then, this is not the first time that you have seen a Polish village?”

  “No. I have passed the last month with Zosia Otocka.”

  “I wish that our Jastrzeb would find favor in your eyes. It is too bad that you chanced here upon a funeral. That is always sad. I saw that you were even affected.”

  “It reminded me of something,” answered Miss Anney.

  Whereupon, evidently desiring to change the subject of the conversation, she again began to peer into the depths of the garden.

  “How everything blooms and smells agreeably here!”

  “Those are jasmines and elders. Did you observe on the forest road, riding to Jastrzeb, that the edges of the woods are planted with elders? That is my work.”

  “I only observed it at the bridge, where an old building stands. What kind of building is that?”

  “That is an ancient mill. At one time there was a great deal of water in the stream beside it, but later my uncle, Zarnowski, drained it off to the fish-ponds in Rzeslewo and the mill stood still. Now it is a ramshackle building in which for over ten years we have stored hay instead of keeping it in hayricks. Folks say that the place is haunted, but I myself circulated, in its time, that myth.”

  “Why?”

  “First, so that they should not steal the hay, and again because it was of much concern to me that no one should pry in there.”

  “What an invention!”

  “I told them that near the bridge during night-time the horses get frightened and that something in the mill laughs; which is true, because owls laugh there.”

  “Perhaps it would have been better to have told them that something in there weeps.”

  “Why?”

  “For greater effect.”

  “I do not know. Laughter in the night in the solitude creates a greater impression. People fear it more.”

  “And nobody peeps in there?”

  “Not a soul. Now, if they only would not steal the hay, it would be all the same to me, but at that time I was anxious to screen myself from the eyes of men—”

  Here Ladislaus bit his tongue, observing in the moonlight that Miss Anney’s eyebrows frowned slightly. He understood that in repeating twice that it was important to him that no one should pry into the mill, he committed a breach of etiquette and, what was worse, had presented himself to the young English lady as some provincial boaster, who gives the impression that often he has been forced to seek various hiding-places. So desiring to erase the bad impression, he added quickly:

  “When a student, I wrote verses and for that reason sought solitude. But now all that has passed away.”

  “That usually passes away,” answered Miss Anney. And she turned to the doors of the salon, but without unnecessary haste, as if she desired to show Ladislaus that she accepted as good coin his explanations and that her return was not a manifestation of displeasure. He remained a while, angry at himself and yet more angry at Miss Anney for the simple reason that the indiscretion was committed solely by him and he could not blame her for anything.

  “In any case,” he said to himself, “that is some deucedly penetrating Puritan.”

  And he began to repeat, with some indignation, her last words:

  “That usually passes away.”

  “Did she,” he thought, “intend to give me to understand that from such grist as is in me nobody could bake any poetry. Perhaps it is true, and I know that better than anyone else, but it is unnecessary for anybody to corroborate the fact.”

  Under the influence of these thoughts he returned to the salon in not quite good humor, but there the duties of host summoned him to his feminine cousins and that evening he did not converse any more with Miss Anney.

  VI

  The notary left the same night because his official duties required his presence in the city the following morning. On the day after, Gronski, whom Pani Otocka requested to act as her representative, with Ladislaus and Dolhanski departed for the notarial bureau. All three were troubled and curious about the will, of which the notary did not drop a single hint. Dolhanski feigned a jocose mien and displayed more sangfroid than he really possessed. He was most anxious that something should “drop off” for him. He was a man who had squandered a large fortune, but, not having changed his habits, kept on living as if he had not lost anything. Therefore he sustained himself upon the surface of life by the aid of extraordinary, almost acrobatic, efforts, of which after all he made no secret. In general, he was a sponger and possessed a million faults, but also certain social qualities for which he was esteemed. Belonging to an aristocratic club, he played cards with unusual good luck, but irreproachably. He never borrowed money from people in his own sphere; never gossiped, and was a tolerably loyal friend. Lack of education he supplied with cleverness and a certain intellectual grasp. He jested about himself, but it was unsafe to jest at him, because he p
ossessed, besides wit, a certain candor which bordered upon cynicism. So he was not only countenanced but willingly received. Gronski, for whom Dolhanski had such high regard that he permitted him alone to jest about him, said that if Dolhanski only had as great a gift of making money as he had of spending it, he would have been a millionaire.

  But while waiting for such a change, heavy moments fell upon Dolhanski, particularly in spring when the play at the club slackened or when the outing season began. Then he felt fatigued after the winter struggles and sighed for something to turn up which would not require any labor. The will of Zarnowski might be such a gratuity, although Dolhanski did not expect much, as during the lifetime of the deceased he did nothing to deserve it. He even frankly repeated that his precious uncle bored him. He reckoned, however, that something might be sliced off for him; enough for the temporary pacification of his creditors or, better still, for a trip to a fashionable, aristocratic French seaside resort.

  Before leaving Warsaw he announced in the club that he would return sitting upon a pillow stuffed with pawn-tickets. At present he attempted, with a certain affected humor, to convince Gronski and Ladislaus that by rights neither Pani Otocka with her sister, nor the Krzyckis, but himself ought to be the chief beneficiary.

  “One of the female cousins,” he said, “is a warm widow, who has a fat fortune from her husband, and the other is a budding muse, who ought to be satisfied with ambrosia. What a pity, that I am not the sole relative of the deceased!”

  Here he addressed Ladislaus:

  “The Krzyckis, I think, need not be considered, because you have had, as I heard, a dispute about the Rzeslewo boundary. I hope that you will not get anything.”

  “What is the use of your hoping?” said Gronski. “Limit, above all things, your wants.”

  “You remind me of my lamented father,” answered Dolhanski.

  “He certainly must have repeated that to you often.”

  “Too often, and besides, he set himself up as an example, but I demonstrated to him, as plainly as two times two are four, that I could and ought to live on a higher scale than he.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I spoke to him thus: Firstly, Papa has a son, while I am childless, and again, I am a better noble than he.”

  “In what respect?”

  “Very plainly, since I can count one generation more in my line of nobility.”

  “Bravo!” exclaimed Krzycki. “What did your father say to that?”

  “He called me a dunce, but I saw he was pleased with it. Ah, if my conceits would only please Pani Otocka as they once did Papa. But I am convinced that my constancy and my appetite will avail me naught. My dear cousin is after all more practical than she seems. You would imagine that both sisters live only on the fragrance of flowers; and yet when they learned of a possible inheritance, they hastily arrived at Jastrzeb.”

  “I can assure you that you are mistaken. Mother invited them last year while in Krynica and now, at least a week before the death of Uncle Zarnowski, she reminded them of their promise. They wrote back that they could not come because they had a guest. Then mother invited the guest also.”

  “If that is so, it is different. Now, not only do I understand your mother, but as you are a shapely youth and, in addition, younger than myself, I begin to fear for Cousin Otocka’s fortune, which more justly belongs to me.”

  “You need have no fear,” answered Krzycki drily.

  “Does that mean that you prefer pounds to roubles? Considering the rate of exchange, I would prefer them also, but I fear that too many of them might have sunk in the Channel on the way from England.”

  “If you are so much concerned about that,” said Gronski, “you might ask Miss Anney about the precise amount. She is so sincere that she will reply to a certainty.”

  “Yes, but it is necessary that I should believe her.”

  “If you knew a little of human nature, you ought to believe her.”

  “In any case, I would fear a misunderstanding; for if she answered me in Polish, she could make a mistake, and if in English, I might not understand her perfectly.”

  “She speaks better Polish than you do English.”

  “I admit that this astonishes me. Whence?”

  “Haven’t I told you,” answered Gronski, with some impatience, “that she was taught from childhood, because her father was an Englishman who had great sympathy for the Poles?”

  “De gustibus non est disputandem,” answered Dolhanski.

  And afterwards he again began to speak of the deceased and of the old notary, mimicking the movements of his toothless jaws and the fury of his look; and finally he announced that if something was not “sliced off” for him he would either shoot himself upon Pani Otocka’s threshold or else would drive over to Gorek and offer himself for the hand of Panna Wlocek.

  But Gronski was buried in thought about something else during the time of this idle talk, while Ladislaus heard him distractedly as his attention was attracted by the considerable number of peasant carts which they were continually passing by. Supposing that he had forgotten some market-day in the city, he turned to his coachman.

  “Andrew,” he asked, “why are there so many carts on the road to the city?”

  “Ah, those, please your honor, are Rzeslewo peasants.”

  “Rzeslewo? What have they to do there?”

  “Ah! please your honor, on account of the will of the deceased Pan Zarnowski; it is to give them Rzeslewo.”

  Krzycki turned to Gronski.

  “I heard,” he said, “that somebody circulated among them such a story, but did not think that they would believe it.”

  And afterwards again to the coachman:

  “Who told them that?”

  The old driver hesitated somewhat in his reply:

  “The people gossip that it was the Tutor.”

  Ladislaus began to laugh.

  “Oh, stupid peasants!” he said. “Why, he never in his life saw Pan Zarnowski. How would he know about the will?”

  But after a moment of meditation he said, partly to his companions and partly to himself:

  “Everything must have some object, so if Laskowicz did that, let some one explain to me why he did it.”

  “Do you suspect him of it?” asked Gronski.

  “I do not know, for heretofore I had assumed that one could be a socialist and keep his wits in order.”

  “Ah, so he is a bird of that nest? Tell me how long has he been with you and what manner of a man is he?”

  “He has been with us half a year. We needed an instructor for Stas and some one recommended him to us. We were informed that he would have to leave Warsaw for a certain time to elude the police and, in fact, for that reason received him more eagerly, thinking that some patriotic matter was involved. Later, when it appeared that he was of an entirely different calibre, mother would not permit his dismissal in hope that she might convert him. At the beginning she had lengthy heart-to-heart talks with him and requested me to be friendly with him. We treated him as a member of the family, but the result has been such that he hates us, not only as people belonging to a sphere which he envies, but also, as it seems, individually.”

  “It is evident,” said Dolhanski, “he holds it evil of you that you are not such as he imagined you would be; neither so wicked nor so stupid. And you may rest assured that he will never forgive that in you.”

  “That may be so. In any case, he will shortly despise us from a distance, for after a month we part. I understand that one can and ought to tolerate all convictions, but there is something in him, besides his principles and hatreds, which is so conflicting with all our customs, and something so strange that we have had enough of him.”

  “My Laudie,” answered Dolhanski, “do not necessarily apply this to yourself, for I speak generally, but since you have mentioned toleration, I will tell you that in my opinion toleration in Poland was and is nothing else than downright stupidity, and monumental stupidity
at that.”

  “In certain respects Dolhanski is right,” answered Gronski. “It may be that in the course of our history we tolerated various ideas and elements not only through magnanimous forbearance, but also because in our indolence we did not care to contend with them.”

  To this Ladislaus, who did not like to engage in general argumentation, said:

  “That is all right, but all that does not explain why Laskowicz should spread among the peasants the news that Uncle Zarnowski devised Rzeslewo to them.”

  “There is, as yet, no certainty that he did,” answered Gronski. “We will very soon learn the truth at the notary’s.”

  VII

  The hour was five in the afternoon. The ladies sat on the veranda, at tea, when the young men returned from the city. Miss Anney rose when they appeared and, not wishing to be present, as a stranger, at the family conversation, left on some pretext for her room. Pani Krzycki greeted them with slightly affected calm, because in reality the thought of the will did not leave her for a moment. She was not greedier than the generality of common mortals, but she was immensely concerned that, after her demise, at the distribution of the estate, Ladislaus should have enough to pay off the younger members of the family and to sustain himself at Jastrzeb. And some respectable bequest would in a remarkable manner facilitate the making of such payments. Besides, at the bottom of the noble soul of Pani Krzycki there lay hidden the faith that Providence owed, to a certain extent, greater obligations to the Krzycki family than to any ordinary family. For that reason, even if the whole of Rzeslewo fell to the lot of that family, she would with readiness and willingness submit to such a decree of Providence. Finally, descending from the blood of a people who in certain cases can sacrifice fortune, but love extraordinarily to acquire it without any effort, she fondled all day the thought that such an easy acquisition was about to occur.