WHICH WILL CONVERT THE OTHER?
In the morning the coach rolled into the courtyard of the castle of
Lankadomb.[56]
[Footnote 56: _i. e._, Orchard-hill.]
Topandy was waiting on the terrace, and ran to meet the young lady,
helped her out of the coach and kissed her hand very courteously. At
Lorand, who descended from his seat beside the coachman, he gazed with
questioning wonder.
The lady answered in his place:
"I have brought an expelled student, who desires to be steward on your
estate. You must accept him."
Then, trusting to the hurrying servants to bring her travelling rugs and
belongings after her, she ascended into the castle, without further
waste of words, leaving Lorand alone with Topandy.
Topandy turned to the young fellow with his usual satirical humor.
"Well, fellow, you've got a fine recommendation! An expelled student;
that's saying a good deal. You want to be steward, or bailiff, or
praefectus here, do you? It's all the same; choose which title you
please. Have you a smattering of the trade?"
"I was brought up to a farm life: it is surely no hieroglyphic to me."
"Bravo! So I shall tell you what my steward has to do. Can you plough
with a team of four? Can you stack hay, standing on the top of the
sheaves? Can you keep order among a dozen reapers? Can you...?"
Lorand was not taken aback by his questions. He merely replied to each
one, "yes."
"That's splendid," said Topandy. "Many renowned and well-versed
gentlemen of business have come to me, to recommend themselves as farm
bailiffs, in buckled shoes; but when I asked them if they could heap
dung on dung carts, they all ran away. I am pleased my questions about
that did not knock you over. Do you know what the 'conventio'[57] will
be?"
[Footnote 57: The payment. The honorarium.]
"Yes."
"But how much do _you_ expect?"
"Until I can make myself useful, nothing; afterwards, as much as is
required from one day to the next."
"Well said; but have you no claims to bailiff's lodgings, office, or
something else? That shall be left entirely to your own discretion. On
my estate, the steward may lodge where he likes--either in the ox-stall,
in the cow-shed, or in the buffalo stable. I don't mind; I leave it
entirely to your choice."
Topandy looked at him with wicked eyes, as he waited for the answer.
Lorand, however, with the most serious countenance, merely answered that
his presence would be required most in the ox-stall, so he would take up
his quarters there.
"So on that point we are agreed," said Topandy, with a loud laugh. "We
shall soon see on what terms of friendship we shall stand. I accept the
terms; when you are tired of them, don't trouble to say so. There is the
gate."
"I shall not turn in that direction."
"Good! I admire your determination. Now come with me; you will receive
at once your provisions for five days--take them with you. The shepherd
will teach you how to cook and prepare your meals."
Lorand did not make a single grimace at these peculiar conditions
attached to the office of steward; he acquiesced in everything, as if he
found everything most correct.
"Well, come with me, Sir bailiff!"
So he led him into the castle, without even so much as inquiring his
name. He thought that in any case he would disappear in a day or two.
Her ladyship was just in the ante-room, where breakfast was usually
served.
While Topandy was explaining to Lorand the various quarters from which
he might choose a bedroom, her ladyship had got the coffee ready, for
dejeuner, and had laid the fine tablecloth on the round table, on which
had been placed three cups, and just so many knives, forks and napkins.
As Topandy stepped into the room, letting Lorand in after him, her
ladyship was engaged in pouring out the coffee from the silver pot into
the cups, while the rich buffalo milk boiled away merrily on the
glittering white tripod before her. Topandy placed himself in the
nearest seat, leaving Lorand to stand and wait until her ladyship had
time to weigh out his rations for him.
"That is not your place!" exclaimed the fair lady.
Topandy sprang up suddenly.
"Pardon. Whose place is this?"
"That gentleman's!" she answered, and nodded at Lorand, both her hands
being occupied.
"Please take a seat, sir," said Topandy, making room for Lorand.
"You will always sit there," said the lady, putting down the coffee-pot
and pointing to the place which had been laid on her left. "At
breakfast, at dinner, at supper."
This had a different sound from what the gentleman of the house had
said. Rather different from garlic and black bread.
"This will be your room here on the right," continued the lady. "The
butler's name is George; he will be your servant. And John is the
coachman, who will stand at your orders."
Lorand's wonder only increased. He wished to make some remark, but he
did not know himself what he wanted to say. Topandy, however, burst
into a Homeric laugh, in which he quite lost himself.
"Why, brother, didn't you tell me you had already arranged matters with
the lady? You would have saved me so much trouble. If matters stand so,
sleep on my sofa, and drink from my glass!"
Lorand wished to play the proud beggar. He raised his head defiantly.
"I shall sleep in the hay, and shall drink from----"
"I advise you to do as I tell you," said the lady, making both men wince
with the flash of her gaze.
"Surely, brother," continued Topandy, "I can give you no better counsel
than that. Well, let us sit down, and drink 'Brotherhood' with a glass
of cognac."
Lorand thought it wise to give way before the commanding gaze of the
lady, and to accept the proffered place, while the latter laughed
outright in sudden good-humor. She was so lovable, so natural, so
pleasant, when she laughed like that, Topandy could not forbear from
kissing her hands.
The lady laughingly, and with jesting prudery, extended the other hand
toward Lorand.
"Well, the other too! Don't be bashful!"
Lorand kissed the other hand.
Upon this, she clapped her hands over her head, and burst into laughter.
"See, see! I have brought you a letter from town," said the lady,
drawing out her purse. "It's a good thing the thief left me this, or
your letter would have been lost as well."
"Thief?" asked Topandy earnestly. "What thief?"
"Why, at the 'Skull-smasher' inn, where we stopped to water our horses,
a thief attacked us, and then wanted to empty our pockets. I threw him
my money and my bracelet, but he wanted to tear this ring from my
finger, too. That I would not give up. Then he caught hold of my hand,
and to prevent my screaming, thrust the butt-end of his pistol into my
mouth--the fool!"
The lady related all this with such an air of indifference that Topandy
could not make out whether she was joking or not.
"What fable is this?"
"Fable indeed!" was the exclamation that greeted him on two sides, on
the one from her ladyship, on the other from the neat little maid, the
latter crying out how much she had been frightened; that she was still
all of a tremble; the former turned back her sleeve and held out her arm
to Topandy.
"See how my arm got scratched by the grasp of the robber! and look here,
how bruised my mouth is from the pistol," said she, parting her rosy
lips, behind which two rows of pearly teeth glistened. "It's a good
thing he didn't knock out my teeth."
"Well, that would have been a pity. But how did you get away from him,"
asked Topandy, in an anxious tone.
"Well, I don't know whether you would ever have seen me again, if this
young man had not dashed to our assistance; for he sprang forward and
snatched the pistol from the hand of the robber,--who immediately took
to his heels and ran away."
Topandy again shook his head, and said it was hard to believe.
"No doubt he still has the pistol in his pocket."
"Give it to me."
"But don't fool with it; it might go off and hurt somebody."
Lorand handed the pistol in question to Topandy. The barrel was of
bronze, highly chased in silver.
"Curious!" exclaimed Topandy, examining the ornamentation. "This pistol
bears the Sarvoelgyi arms."
Without another word he put the weapon in his pocket, and shook hands
with Lorand across the table.
"My boy, you are a fine fellow. I honor you for so bravely defending my
people. Now I have the more reason in agreeing to your living
henceforward under the same roof with me; unless you fear it may,
through fault of mine, fall in upon you. What was the robber like?" he
said, turning again to the women.
"We could not see him, because he put out the candle and ran away."
Lorand was struck by the fact that the woman did not seem inclined to
recall the robber's features, which she must, however have been able to
see by the help of the spirit-lamp; he noticed, too, that she did not
utter a word about the robber's being a gypsy.
"I don't know what he was like," she repeated, with a meaning look at
Lorand. "Neither of us could see, for it was dark. For the same reason
our deliverer could not shoot at him, because it was difficult to aim in
the dark. If he had missed him, the robber might have murdered us all."
"A fine adventure," muttered Topandy. "I shall not allow you to travel
alone at night another time. I shall go armed myself. I shall not put up
with the existence of that den in the marsh any longer or it will always
be occupied by such as mean to harm us. As soon as the Tisza overflows,
I shall set fire to the reeds about the place, when the stack will catch
fire, too."
During this conversation the woman had produced the letter.
"There it is," she cried, handing it to Topandy.
"A lady's handwriting!" exclaimed Topandy, glancing at the direction.
"What, you can tell by the letters whether it is the writing of a man or
a woman?" queried the beautiful lady, throwing a curious glance at the
writing.
Lorand looked at it, too, and it seemed to him as if he had seen the
writing before, but he could not remember where.
It was a strange hand; the characters did not resemble the writing of
any of his lady acquaintances, and yet he must have seen it somewhere.
You may cast about and reflect long, Lorand, before you discover whose
writing it is. You never thought of her who wrote this letter. You never
even noticed her existence! It is the writing of Fanny, of the jolly
little exchange-girl. It was Desi who once showed you that handwriting
for a moment, when your mother sent her love in Fanny's letter. Now the
unknown hand had written to Topandy to the effect that a young man would
appear before him, bespattered and ragged. He was not to ask whence he
came, or whither he went; but he was to look well at the noble face, and
he would know from it that the youth was not obliged to avoid
persecution of the world for some base crime.
Topandy gazed long at the youthful face before him. Could this be the
one she meant?
The story of the Parliamentary society of the young men was well known
to him.
He asked no questions.
* * * * *
After the first day Lorand felt himself quite at home in Topandy's home.
Topandy treated him as a duke would treat his only son, whom he was
training to be his heir; Lorand's conduct toward Topandy was that of a
poor man's son, learning to make himself useful in his father's home.
Each found many extraordinary traits in the other, and each would have
loved to probe to the depths of the other's peculiarities.
Lorand remarked in his uncle a deep, unfathomable feeling underlying his
seeming godlessness. Topandy, on his side, suspected that some dark
shadow had prematurely crossed the serenity of the young man's mind.
Each tried to pierce the depths of the other's soul--but in vain.
Her ladyship had on the first day confided her life secret to Lorand.
When he endeavored to pay her the compliment of kissing her hand after
supper, she withdrew her hand and refused to accept this mark of
respect.
"My dear boy, don't kiss my hand, or 'my ladyship' me any more. I am but
a poor gypsy girl. My parents, were simple camp-folk; my name is Czipra.
I am a domestic servant here, whom the master has dressed up, out of
caprice, in silks and laces, and he makes the servants call me 'madame,'
on which account they subsequently mock me,--of course, only behind my
back, for if they did it to my face I should strike them; but don't you
laugh at me behind my back. I am an orphan gypsy girl, and my master
picked me up out of the gutter. He is very kind to me, and I would die
for him, if fate so willed. That's how matters stand, do you
understand?"
The gypsy girl glanced with dimmed eyes at Topandy, who smilingly
listened to her frank confession, as though he approved of it. Then, as
if she had gained her master's consent, she turned again to Lorand:
"So call me simply 'Czipra.'"
"All right, Czipra, my sister," said Lorand, holding out his hand.
"Well now, that is nice of you to add that;" upon which she pressed
Lorand's hand, and left the men to themselves.
Topandy turned the conversation, and spoke no more to Lorand of Czipra.
He first of all wished to find out what impression the discovery would
make upon the young man.
The following days enlightened him.
Lorand, from that day, far from showing more familiarity, manifested
greater deference towards the reputed lady of the house. Since she had
confessed her true position to him, moreover he treated her as one who
knew well that the smallest slight would doubly hurt one who was not in
a position to complain. He was kind and attentive to the woman, who,
beneath the appearance of happiness, was wretched, though innocent. To
the uninitiated, she was the lady of the house; to the better informed,
she was the favorite of her master, and that was nought but a maiden in
the disguise of wife, and Lorand was able to read the riddle aright.
If Topandy watched him, he in his turn observed Topandy; he saw that
Topandy did not watch, nor was jealous of the girl. He consented to her
traveling alone, confided the greater part of his fortune to her,
overwhelmed her with presents, but beyond this did not trouble about
her. Still he showed a certain affection which did not arise from mere
habit. He would not brook the least harm to her from anybody, making the
whole household fear her as much as the master, and if by chance they
hesitated as to their duty to one or the other, it was always Czipra who
had a prior claim on their services.
Topandy at once perceived that Lorand did not run after a fair face, nor
after the face of any woman, who was not difficult to conquer, because
she was not guarded, and who might be easily got rid of, being but a
gypsy girl. His heart was either fully occupied by one object only, or
it was an infinite void which nothing could fill. Topandy led a
boisterous life, when he fell in with his chums, but when alone he was
quite another man. To fathom nature's mysteries was a passion with him.
In a corner of the basement of the castle there was a chemical
laboratory, where he passed his time with making physical experiments;
he labored with instruments, he probed the secrets of the stars, and of
the earth; at such times he only cared to have Lorand at his side; in
him he found a being capable of sharing his scientific researches,
though he did not share in his doubts.
"All is matter!" such had for centuries been the motto of the
naturalist, and therefore the naturalist had ever found a kindred spirit
in the agnostic.
Often did Czipra come upon the two men at their quiet pursuits and watch
them for hours together; and though she did not understand what in this
higher science went beyond her comprehension, yet she could take
pleasure in observing Cartesius' diving imps; she dared to sit upon the
insulators, and her joy was boundless when Lorand at such a time,
approaching her with his finger, called forth electric sparks from her
dress or hands. She found enjoyment, too, in peering through the great
telescopes at the heavenly wonders. Lorand was always ready to answer
her questions; but the poor girl was far from understanding all. Yet
how rapturous the thought of knowing all! Once when Lorand was
explaining to her the properties of the sun-spectrum, the girl sighed
and, suddenly bending down to Lorand, whispered blushingly:
"Teach me to read."
Lorand looked at her in amazement. Topandy, looking over his shoulder,
asked her:
"Tell me, what would be the use of teaching you to read?"
The girl clasped her hands to her bosom:
"I should like to learn to pray."
"What? To pray? And what would you pray for? Is there anything that you
cannot do without?"
"There is."
"What can it be?"
"That is what I should like to know by praying."
"And you do not know yourself what it is?"
"I cannot express what it is."
"And do you know anybody who could give it you?"
The girl pointed to the sky.
Topandy shrugged his shoulders at her.
"Bah! you goose, reading is not for girls. Women are best off when they
know nothing."
Then he laughed in her face.
Czipra ran weeping out of the laboratory.
Lorand pitied the poor creature, who, dressed in silks and finery, did
not know her letters, and who was incapable of raising her voice to God.
He was in a mood, through long solitude, for pitying others; under a
strange name, known to nobody, separated from the world, he was able to
forget the lofty dreams to which a smooth career had pointed, and which
fate, at his first steps, had mocked. He had given up the idea that the
world should acknowledge this title: "a great patriot, who is the holder
of a high office." He who does not desire this should keep to the
ploughshare. Ambition should only have well-regulated roads, and success
should only begin with a lower office in the state. But he whose hobby
it is to murmur, will find a fine career in field labor; and he who
wishes to bury himself, will find himself supplied, in life, with a
beautiful, romantic, flowery wheat-covered cemetery by the fields, from
the centre of which the happy dead creatures of life cheerfully mock at
those who weary themselves and create a disturbance--with the idea that
they are doing something, whereas their end is the same as that of the
rest of mankind.
Lorand was even beginning to grow indifferent to the awful obligation
that lay before him at the end of the appointed time. It was still afar
off. Before then a man might die peacefully and quietly; perhaps that
other who guarded the secret might pass away ere then. And perhaps the
years at the plough would harden the skin of a man's soul, as it did of
his face and hands, so that he would come to ridicule a wager, which in
his youthful over-enthusiasm he would have fulfilled; a wager the
refusal to accept which would merely win the commendation of everybody.
And if any one could say the reverse, how could he find him to say it to
his face? As regards his family at home, he was fairly at his ease. He
often received letters from Dezsoe (Desiderius), under another address;
they were all well at home, and treated the fate of the expelled son
with good grace. He also learned that Madame Balnokhazy had not returned
to her husband, but had gone abroad with that actor with whom she had
previously been acquainted. This also he had wiped out from his memory.
His whole mind was a perfect blank in which there was room for other
people's misfortunes.
It was impossible not to remark how Czipra became attached to him in her
simplicity. She had a feeling which she had never felt before, a feeling
of shame, if some impudent jest was made at her expense by one of
Topandy's guests, in the presence of Lorand.
Once, when Topandy and Lorand were amusing themselves at greater length
with optical experiments in the lonely scientific apartment, Lorand took
the liberty of introducing the subject.
"Is it true that that girl has grown up without any knowledge whatever?"
"Surely; she knows neither God nor alphabet."
"Why don't you allow the poor child to learn to know them?"
"What, her alphabet? Because in my eyes it is quite superfluous. A mad
idea once occurred to me of picking some naked gypsy child out of the
streets, with the intention of making a happy being therefrom. What is
happiness in the world? Ease and ignorance. Had I a child of my own, I
should do the same with it. The secret of life is to have a good
appetite, sound sleep, and a good heart. If I reflect what bitternesses
have been my lot my whole life, I find the cause of each one was what I
have learned. Many a night did I lie awake in agonized distraction,
while my servants were snoring in peace. I desired to see before me a
person as happy as it was my ideal to be; a person free from those
distressing tortures, which the civilized world has discovered for the
persecution of man by man. Well, I have begun by telling you why I did
not teach Czipra her alphabet."
"And God?"
Topandy took his eyes off the telescope, with which he had just been
gazing at the starry sky.
"I don't know Him myself."
Lorand turned from him with a distressed air. Topandy remarked it.
"My dear boy, my dear twenty-year-old child, probably you know more than
I do; if you know Him, I beg you to teach me."
Lorand shrugged his shoulders, then began to discuss scientific
subjects.
"Does Dollond's telescope show stars in the Milky Way?"
"Yes, a million twinkling stars o'erspread the Milky Way, each several
star a sun."
"Does it dissipate the mist in the head of the Northern Hound?"
"The mist remains as it was before--a round cloudy mass with a ring of
mist around it."
"Perhaps Gregory's telescope, just arrived from Vienna, magnifies
better?"
"Bring it here. Since its arrival there has been no clear weather, to
enable us to make experiments with it."
Topandy gazed at the heavens through the new telescope with great
interest.
"Ah," he remarked in a tone of surprise. "This is a splendid instrument;
the star-mist thins, some tiny stars appear out of the ring."
"And the mass itself?"
"That remains mist. Not even this telescope can disperse its atoms."
"Well, shall we not experiment with Chevalier's microscope now?"
"That is a good idea; get it ready."
"What shall we put under it? A rhinchites?"
"That will do."
Lorand lit the spirit-lamp, which threw light on the subject under the
magnifying glass; then he first looked into it himself, to find the
correct focus. Enraptured, he cried out:
"Look here! That fabled armor of Homer's _Iliad_ is not to be compared
with this little insect's wing-shields. They are nothing but emerald and
enamelled gold."
"Indeed it is so."
"And now listen to me: between the two wings of this little insect there
is a tiny parasite or worm, which in its turn has two eyes, a life, and
life-blood flowing in its veins, and in this worm's stomach other worms
are living, impenetrable to the eye of this microscope."
"I understand," said the atheist, glancing into Lorand's eyes. "You are
explaining to me that the immensity of the world of creation reaching to
awful eternity is only equalled by the immensity of the descent to the
shapeless nonentity; and that is your God!"
The sublime calm of Lorand's face indicated that that was his idea.
"My dear boy," said Topandy, placing his two hands on Lorand's shoulder,
"with that idea I have long been acquainted. I, too, fall down before
immensity, and recognize that we represent but one class in the upward
direction towards the stars, and one degree in the descent to the moth
and rust that corrupt; and perhaps that worm, that I killed in order to
take rapt pleasure in its wings, thought itself the middle of eternity
round which the world is whirling like Plato's featherless two-footed
animals; and when at the door of death it uttered its last cry, it
probably thought that this cry for vengeance would be noted by some one,
as when at Warsaw four thousand martyrs sang with their last breath,
'All is not yet lost.'"
"That is not my faith, sir. The history of the ephemeral insect is the
history of a day,--that of a man means a whole life; the history of
nations means centuries, that of the world eternity; and in eternity
justice comes to each one in irremediable and unalterable succession."
"I grant that, my boy; and I allow, too, that the comets are certainly
claimants to the world whose suits have been deferred to this long
justice, who one day will all recover their inheritances, from which
some tyrant sun has driven them out; but you must also acknowledge, my
child, that for us, the thoughtful worms, or stars, if you like, which
can express their thoughts in spirited curses, providence has no care.
For everything, everything there is a providence: be it so, I believe
it. But for the living kind there is none, unless we take into account
the rare occasions when a plague visits mankind, because it is too
closely spread over the earth and requires thinning."
"Sir, many misfortunes have I suffered on earth, very many, and such as
fate distributes indiscriminately; but it has never destroyed--my
faith."
"No misfortune has ever attacked me. It is not suffering that has made
me sceptical. My life has always been to my taste. Should some one
divide up his property in reward for prayer, I should not benefit one
crumb from it.--It is hypocrites who have forcibly driven me this way.
Perhaps, were I not surrounded by such, I should keep silence about my
unbelief, I should not scandalize others with it, I should not seek to
persecute the world's hypocrites with what they call blasphemy. Believe
me, my boy, of a million men, all but one regard Providence as a rich
creditor, from whom they may always borrow--but when it is a question of
paying the interest, then only that one remembers it."
"And that one is enough to hallow the ideal!"
"That one?--but you will not be that one!"
Lorand, astonished, asked:
"Why not?"
"Because, if you remain long in my vicinity, you must without fail turn
into such a universal disbeliever as I am."
Lorand smiled to himself.
"My child," said Topandy, "you will not catch the infection from me, who
am always sneering and causing scandals, but from that other who prays
to the sound of bells."
"You mean Sarvoelgyi?"
"Whom else could I mean? You will meet this man every day. And in the
end you will say just as I do--'If one must go to heaven in this wise, I
had rather remain here?'"
"Well, and what is this Sarvoelgyi?"
"A hypocrite, who lies to all the saints in turn, and would deceive the
eyes of the archangels if they did not look after themselves."
"You have a very low opinion of the man."
"A low opinion? That is the only good thing in my heart, that I despise
the fellow."
"Simply because he is pious? In the world of to-day, however, it is a
kind of courage to dare to show one's piety outwardly before a world of
scepticism and indifference. I should like to defend him against you."
"Would you? Very well. Let us start at once. Draw up a chair and listen
to me. I shall be the devil's advocate. I shall tell you a story
concerning this fellow; I was merely a simple witness to the whole. The
man never did me any harm. I tell you once again that I have no
complaint to make either against mankind or against any beings that may
exist above or below. Sit beside me, my boy."
Lorand first of all stirred up the fire in the fire-place, and put out
the spirit lamp of the microscope, so that the room was lighted only by
the red glare of the log-fire and the moon, which was now rising above
the horizon and shed her pale radiance through the window.
"In my younger days I had a very dear friend, a relation, with whom I
had always gone to school and such fast comrades were we that even in
the class-room we sat always side by side. My comrade was unapproachably
first in the class, and I came next; sometime between us like a dividing
wall came this fellow Sarvoelgyi, who was even then a great flatterer and
sneak, and in this way sometimes drove me out of my place--and young
schoolboys think a great deal of their own particular places. Of course
I was even then so godless that they could not make sufficient
complaints against me. Later, during the French war, as the schools
suffered much, we were both sent together to Heidelberg. The devil
brought Sarvoelgyi after us. His parents were parvenues. What our parents
did they were always bound to imitate. They might have sent their boy to
Jena, Berlin, or Nineveh; but he must come just where we were."
"You have never mentioned your friend's name," said Lorand, who had
listened in anguish to the commencement of the story.
"Indeed?--Why there's really no need for the name. He was a friend of
mine. As far as the story is concerned it doesn't matter what they
called him. Still that you may not think I am relating a fable, I may as
well tell you his name. It was Loerincz Aronffy."
A cold numbness seized Lorand when he heard his father's name. Then his
heart began suddenly to beat at a furious pace. He felt he was standing
before the crypt door, whose secret he had so often striven to fathom.
"I never knew a fairer figure, a nobler nature, a warmer heart than he
had," continued Topandy. "I admired and loved him, not merely as my
relation, but as the ideal of the young men of the day. The common
knowledge of all kinds of little secrets, such as only young people
understand among themselves, united us more closely in that bond of
friendship which is usually deferred until later days. At that time
there broke out all over Europe those liberal political views, which had
such a fascinating influence generally on young men. Here too there was
an awakening of what is called national feeling; great philosophers even
turned against one another with quite modern opposition in public as
well as in private life. All this made more intimate the relations which
had till then been mere childish habit.
"We were two years at the academy; those two years were passed amidst
enough noise and pleasure. Had we money, we spent it together; had we
none, we starved together. For one another we went empty-handed, for one
another, we fought, and were put in prison. Then we met Sarvoelgyi very
seldom; the academy is a great forest and men are not forced together as
on the benches of a grammar-school.
"Just at the very climax of the French war, the idea struck us to edit a
written newspaper among ourselves."
(Lorand began to listen with still greater interest.)
"We travestied with humorous score in our paper all that the
'Augsburger' delivered with great pathos: those who read laughed at it.
"However, there came an end to our amusement, when one fine day we
received the 'consilium abeundi.'
"I was certainly not very much annoyed. So much transcendental science,
so much knowledge of the world had been driven into me already, that I
longed to go home to the company of the village sexton, who, still
believed that anecdotes and fables were the highest science.
"Only two days were allowed us at Heidelberg to collect our belongings
and say adieu to our so-called 'treasures.' During these two days I only
saw Aronffy twice: once on the morning of the first day, when he came
to me in a state of great excitement, and said, 'I have the scoundrel by
the ear who betrayed us!--If I don't return, follow in my tracks and
avenge me.' I asked him why he did not choose me for his second, but he
replied: 'Because you also are interested and must follow me.' And then
on the evening of the second day he came home again, quite dispirited
and out of sorts! I spoke to him; he would scarcely answer; and when I
finally insisted: 'perhaps you killed someone?' he answered
determinedly, 'Yes.'"
"And who was that man?" inquired Lorand, taken aback.
"Don't interrupt me. You shall know soon," Topandy muttered.
"From that day Aronffy was completely changed. The good-humored,
spirited young fellow became suddenly a quiet, serious, sedate man, who
would never join us in any amusement. He avoided the world, and I
remarked that in the world he did his best to avoid me.
"I thought I knew why that was. I thought I knew the secret of his
earnestness. He had murdered a man whom he had challenged to a duel.
That weighed upon his mind. He could not be cold-blooded enough to drive
even such a bagatelle from his head. Other people count it a 'bravour,'
or at most suffer from the persecutions of others--not of themselves. He
would soon forget it, I thought, as he grew older.
"Yet my dear friend remained year by year a serious-minded man, and when
later on I met him, his society was for me so unenjoyable that I never
found any pleasure in frequenting it.
"Still, as soon as he returned home, he got married. Even before our
trip to Heidelberg he had become engaged to a very pleasant, pretty, and
quiet young girl. They were in love with each other. Still Aronffy
remained always gloomy. In the first year of his marriage a son was born
to him. Later another. They say both the sons were handsome, clever
boys. Yet that never brightened him. Immediately after the honeymoon he
went to the war, and behaved there like one who thinks the sooner he is
cut off the better. Later, all the news I received of him confirmed my
idea that Aronffy was suffering from an incurable mental disease.--Does
a man, the candle of whose life we have snuffed out deserve that?"
"What was the name of the man he murdered?" demanded Lorand with renewed
disquietude.
"As I have told you, you shall know soon: the story will not run away
from me! only listen further.
"One day--it might have been twelve years since the day we shook off the
dust of the Heidelberg school from our boots--I received a parcel from
Heidelberg, from the Local Council, which informed me that a certain Dr.
Stoppelfeld had left me this packet in his will.
"Stoppelfeld? I racked my brains to discover who it might be that from
beyond the border had left me something in his testament. Finally it
occurred to me that a long light-haired medical student, who was famous
in his days among the drinking clubs, had attended the same lectures as
we had. If I was not deceived, we had drunk together and fought a duel.
"I undid the packet, and found within it a letter addressed to me.
"I have that letter still, but I know every word by heart so often have
I read it. Its contents were as follows:
"'MY DEAR COMRADE:
"'You may remember that, on the day before your departure from
Heidelberg, one of our young colleagues, Loerincz Aronffy, looked among
his acquaintances for seconds in some affair of honor. As it happened I
was the first he addressed. I naturally accepted the invitation, and
asked his reason and business. As you too know them--he told me so--I
shall not write them here. He informed me, too, why he did not choose
you as his second, and at the same time bound me to promise, if he
should fall in the duel, to tell you that you might follow the matter
up. I accepted, and went with him to the challenged. I explained that
in such a case a duel was customary, and in fact necessary; if he wished
to avoid it, he would be forced to leave the academy. The challenged did
not refuse the challenge, but said that as he was of weak constitution,
shortsighted and without practice with any kind of weapons, he chose the
American duel of drawing lots!'"
... Topandy glanced by chance at Lorand's face, and thought that the
change of color he saw on his countenance was the reflection of the
flickering flame in the fire-place.
"The letter continued:
"'At our academy at that time there was a great rage for that stupid
kind of duel, where two men draw lots and the one whose name comes out,
must blow his brains out after a fixed time. Asses! At that time I had
already enough common sense, when summoned to act as second in such
cases, to try to persuade the principals to fix a longer period,
calculating quite rightly that within ten or twelve years the bitterest
enemies would become reconciled, and might even become good friends: the
successful principal might be magnanimous, and give his opponent his
life, or the unsuccessful adversary might forget in his well-being, such
a ridiculous obligation.
"'In this case I arranged a period of sixteen years between the parties.
I knew my men: sixteen years were necessary for the education of the
traitorous schoolfox[58] into a man of honor, or for his proud, upright
young adversary to reach the necessary pitch of _sang froid_ that would
make a settlement of their difference feasible.
[Footnote 58: _i. e._, Schoolfox, a term of contempt.]
"'Aronffy objected at first: "At once or never!" but he had finally to
accept the decision of the seconds: and we drew lots.
"'Aronffy's name came out.'"
... Lorand was staring at the narrator with fixed eyes, and had no
feeling for the world outside, as he listened in rapt awe to this story
of the past.
"'The name that was drawn out we gave to the successful party, who had
the right to send this card, after sixteen years were passed, to his
adversary, in order if the latter deferred the fulfilment of his
obligation, to remind him thereof.
"'Then we parted company, you went home and I thought we should forget
the matter as many others have done.
"'But I was deceived. To this, the hour of my death, it has always
remained in my memory, has always agonized and persecuted me. I inquired
of my acquaintances in Hungary about the two adversaries, and all I
learned only increased my anguish. Aronffy was a proud and earnest man.
It is surely stupidity for a man to kill himself, when he is happy and
faring well: yet a proud man would far rather the worms gnawed his body
than his soul, and could not endure the idea of giving up to a man, whom
yesterday he had the right to despise, of his own accord, that right of
contempt. He can die, but he cannot be disgraced. He is a fool for his
pains: but it is consistent.'"
Lorand was shuddering all over.
"'I am in my death-struggles,' continued Stoppelfeld's letter: 'I know
the day, the hour in which I shall end all; but that thought does not
calm me so much, seeing that I cannot go myself and seek that man, who
holds Aronffy in his hands, to tell him: "Sir, twelve years have passed.
Your opponent has suffered twelve years already because of a terrible
obligation: for him every pleasure of life has been embittered, before
him the future eternity has been overclouded; be contented with that
sacrifice, and do not ask for the greatest too. Give back one man to his
family, to his country, and to God--" But I cannot go. I must sit here
motionless and count the beats of my pulse, and reckon how many remain
till the last.
"'And that is why I came to you: you know both, and were a good friend
to one: go, speak, and act. Perhaps I am a ridiculous fool: I am afraid
of my own shadow; but it agonizes and horrifies me; it will not let me
die. Take this inheritance from me. Let me rest peacefully in my ashes.
So may God bless you! The man who has Aronffy's word, as far as I know,
is a very gracious man, it will be easy for you to persuade him--his
name is Sarvoelgyi.'"
... At these words Topandy rose from his seat and went to the window,
opening both sides of it: so heavy was the air within the room. The cold
light of the moon shone on Lorand's brow.
Topandy, standing then at the window, continued the thrilling story he
had commenced. He could not sit still to relate it. Nor did he speak as
if his words were for Lorand alone, but as if he wished the dumb trees
to hear it too, and the wondering moon, and the shivering stars and the
shooting meteors that they might gainsay if possible the earthy worm who
was speaking.
"I at once hurried across to the fellow. I was now going with tender,
conciliatory countenance to a man whose threshold I had never crossed,
whom I had never greeted when we met. I first offered him my hand that
there might be peace between us. I began to appraise his graciousness,
his virtues. I begged him to pardon the annoyances I had previously
caused him; whatever atonement he might demand from me I would be glad
to fulfill.
"The fellow received me with gracious obeisance, and grasped my hand. He
said, upon his soul, he could not recall any annoyance he had ever
suffered from me. On the contrary he calculated how much good I had done
him in my life, beginning from his school-boy years:--I merely replied
that I certainly could not remember it.
"I hastened to come straight to the point. I told him that I had been
brought to his home by an affair the settlement of which I owed to a
good old friend, and asked him to read the letter that I had received
that day.
"Sarvoelgyi read the letter to the end. I watched his face all the time
he was reading it. He did not cease for a moment that stereotyped smile
of tenderness which gives me the shivers whenever I see it in my
recollections.
"When he was through with the letter, he quietly folded it and gave it
back.
"'Have you not discovered,' he said to me with pious face, 'that the man
who wrote that letter is--mad?'
"'Mad?' I asked, aghast.
"'Without doubt,' answered Sarvoelgyi; 'he himself writes that he has a
disease of the nerves, sees visions, and is afraid of his shadow. The
whole story is--a fable. I never had any conflict with our friend
Aronffy, which would have given occasion for an American or even a
Chinese duel. From beginning to end it is--a poem.'
"I knew it was no poem: Aronffy had had a duel, but I had never known
with whom. I had never asked him about it any more after he had, to my
question, 'perhaps you have murdered someone?' answered, 'Yes.' Plainly
he had meant himself. I tried to penetrate more deeply into that man's
heart.
"'Sir, neighbor, friend,--be a man! be the Christian you wish to be
thought: consider that this fellow-man of ours has a dearly-loved
family. If you have that card which the seconds gave you twelve years
ago, don't agonize or terrify him any more; write to him that "the
account is settled," and give over to him that horrible deed of
contract. I shall honor you till my death for it. I know that in any
case you will do it one day before it is too late. You will not take
advantage of that horrible power which blind fate has delivered into
your hand, by sending him his card empty to remind him that the time is
up. You would pardon him then too. But do so now. This man's life during
its period of summer, has been clouded by this torturing obligation,
which has hung continuously above his happiness; let the autumn sunbeams
shine upon his head. Give, give him a hand of reconciliation now, at
once!'
"Sarvoelgyi insisted that he had never had any kind of 'cartell': how
could I imagine that he would have the heart to maintain his revenge for
years? His past and present life repudiated any such charge. He had
never had any quarrel with Aronffy, and, had there been one, he would
long ago have been reconciled to him.
"I did not yet let the fellow out of my hands. I told him to think what
he was doing. Aronffy had once told me that, should he perish in this
affair, I was to continue the matter. I too knew a kind of duel, which
surpassed even the American, because it destroyed a man by pin-pricks.
So take care you don't receive for your eternal adversary the
neighboring heathen in exchange for the pious, quiet and distant
Aronffy.
"Sarvoelgyi swore he knew nothing of the affair. He called God and all
the saints to witness that he had not the very remotest share in
Aronffy's danger.
"'Well, and why is Aronffy so low-spirited?'
"'--As if you should not know that,' said the Pharisee, making a face of
surprise: 'not know anything about it?
"'Well I will whisper it to you in confidence. Aronffy has not been
happy in his family life. You know, of course, that when he came home he
married, and immediately joined the rebel army. With a corps of
volunteers he fought till the end of the war, and returned again to his
family. But he has still that worm in his soul.'"
It was well that the fire had already died out:--well that a dark cloud
rolled up before the moon:--well that the narrator could not see the
face of his listener, when he said that:
"And I was fool enough to believe him. I credited the calumny with which
the good fame of the angelically pure wife of an honorable man had been
defiled. Yes, I allowed myself to be deceived in this underhand way! I
allowed myself to rest calm in the belief that there is many a sad man
on the earth, whose wife is beautiful.
"Still, once I met by chance Aronffy's mother, and produced before her
the letter which had been accredited a fable. Her ladyship was very
grateful, but begged me not to say a word about it to Aronffy.
"I believe that from that day she paid great attention to her son's
behavior.
"Four years I had managed to keep myself at a respectful distance from
Sarvoelgyi's person.
"But there came a day in the year, marked with red in my calendar, the
anniversary of our departure from Heidelberg.
"Three days after that sixteenth anniversary I received a letter, which
informed me that Aronffy had on that red-letter day killed himself in
his family circle."
The narrator here held silence, and, hanging down his hands, gazed out
into the brilliant night; profound silence reigned in the room, only the
large "grandfather's clock" ticked the past and future.
"I don't know what I should have done, had I met the hypocrite then: but
just at that time he was away on a journey: he left behind a letter for
me, in which he wrote that he, too, was sorry our unfortunate
friend--our friend indeed!--had met with such a sad end: certainly
family circumstances had brought him to it. He pitied his weakness of
mind, and promised to pray for his soul!
"How pious.
"He killed a man in cold blood, after having tortured him for sixteen
years! Sent him the sentence of death in a letter! Forced the gracious,
quiet, honorable man and father to cut short his life with his own hand!
"With a cold, smiling countenance he took advantage of the fiendish
power which fate and the too sensitive feeling of honor of a lofty soul
had given into his hand; and then shrugged his shoulders, clasped his
hands, turned his eyes to heaven, and said 'there is no room for the
suicide with God.'
"Who is he, who gives a true man into the hands of the deceiver, that he
may choke with his right hand his breath, with his left his soul.
"Well, philosopher, come; defend this pious man against me! Tell me what
you have learned."
But the philosopher did not say what he had learned. Half dead and
wholly insensible he lay back in his chair while the moon shone upon his
upturned face with its full brilliance.