by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER IX.
THE UNDERSCORED LINES.
Some one was expected at the castle: a letter had been received fromA-dA?n--this time written by his own hand and mailed atLemberg--announcing in advance his early arrival. In the afternoon thebaroness ordered her carriage and drove to meet her son. Halting atSzunyogos, she there awaited his coming. A-dA?n arrived promptly at theappointed time. The meeting of mother and son was tenderlyaffectionate.
"How you frightened me with your accident!" exclaimed the baroness,half in reproach.
"That is now happily over," rejoined A-dA?n, kissing his mother. "Wehave each other once more."
Entering his mother's carriage, the young man proceeded without delay,in her company, to Nemesdomb. After he had exchanged histravel-stained clothes for fresh garments, his mother led him into hisfather's apartments.
"These rooms," said she, "will now be for your use. You must receivethe people that come to visit us. Henceforth you are master here andwill exercise that supervision over the estate which it so sadlyneeds. Our house enjoys great repute in the county, and you mustdecide what position you will take, what circle of acquaintances youwill gather around you, and what part you will play as leader. Haveyou taken thought that as eldest son you will be called upon to assumethe lord-lieutenancy of the county, which has so long been in ourfamily?"
"An administrator, as I am told, now sits in the lord lieutenant'schair," observed the son.
"Yes," replied the mother, "because the actual lord lieutenant was aninvalid and unable to preside in person over the county assemblies.But you are well and strong, and it rests with you to see that no oneusurps your rights."
A-dA?n looked into his mother's eyes. "Mother," said he, "it was not forthis reason that you called me home."
"You are right. I had another motive. I must tell you that your fatherleft directions in his will that, six weeks after his death, I shouldgive my hand in marriage to the administrator. A betrothal ceremony,accordingly, is the immediate occasion of the coming together of ouracquaintances. Your father wished our house to gain a new support,able to bear the burden that will be imposed upon it."
"If it was my father's will and is yours also--" began the son.
"Is my will, then, of supreme authority with you?" asked the mother.
"You know that it is my highest law," was the reply.
"Very well. Now I will tell you what my will really is. The house ofBaradlay needs a master and a mistress,--a master to command andguide, a mistress with power to win hearts. A master it will findin--you."
A-dA?n started in surprise.
"You will be the master, and your wife the mistress, of this house."
The young man sighed heavily. "Mother, you know this cannot be," saidhe.
"Will you not marry?"
"Never!"
"Make no such rash vow. You are but twenty-four years old. You werenot born to be a Carthusian monk. The world is full of pretty facesand loving hearts, and even you are sure to find one for yourself."
"You know there is none among them for me," returned the young man.
"But what if I have already found one?"
"Your quest has been in vain, mother."
"Say not so," rejoined the other, tenderly drawing her son to herside. "Can you pass judgment without first seeing? She whom I havechosen is good and beautiful, and loves you fondly."
"She may be as beautiful as a fairy and as good as an angel, with aheart more full of love than even your own; yet I care not to seeher."
"Oh, do not speak so rashly; you might repent it. I am sure you willretract your words when you see her face. Come, I will show it to youin the next room."
"It will have no effect on me," declared A-dA?n.
The mother led her son to the door and let him open it and enterfirst. There stood Aranka, trembling with expectant happiness.
Hastening to her own room, the baroness drew from her portfolio thememorable document dictated to her by her dying husband, andunderscored with a red pencil the lines referring to the event whichthat day had witnessed.
"Thus far it is accomplished," she said to herself.