Röschen--she had been christened Rosa, but he always called her
Röschen--was her father's favourite child, and his exact image, as Mrs.
Tiralla used to say in a peculiar tone of voice. Yes, the girl had the
same blue eyes as her father, although they were not so pale and watery
as his, and the same coloured hair, for his must also have had a
reddish tinge before it became grey. And that was why Mrs. Tiralla so
often turned away when the child had wanted to get on her lap and, with
clumsy little fingers, stroke her cheek.
However, Mrs. Tiralla was in a more affectionate mood to-night. The
little girl looked up in astonishment when she felt a soft hand on her
head; but then she clung to her mother, and her dull eyes gleamed with
joy and gratitude.
Mr. Tiralla had come back from Gnesen, and it seemed to the woman as if
a star were now standing over the house, showing her distinctly the way
she was to go. She felt happier than she had been for a long time.
Her husband had handed her the packet from the chemist's as if it had
been a box of sweets he sometimes brought her from town. It was nicely
done up in striped tissue paper with a piece of red string round it.
But, on taking off the string, she had caught sight of a grinning
death's head and cross-bones on the lid, [Pg 37] and had read the word
"Poison." She had screamed and let the box fall on the table.
"There, you see, now you're afraid of it as well," said Mr. Tiralla.
How little he knew her. She and fear?
"How am I to prepare it? How am I to prepare it?" she cried in an eager
voice.
He showed her how. He felt very important, for the chemist had warned
him to be exceedingly careful. He would not have given such a thing to
anybody else but the well-known Mr. Tiralla, the man had said, not even
if they had brought a paper from the doctor. She was to strew some of
the white powder, which looked as harmless as sifted sugar, on a small
piece of raw meat; and put it in the corners. There would be no rats
left in the cellar then. Or she could strew some of the wheat which was
in the paper bag, and which you could hardly distinguish from ordinary
wheat, as it only looked a little redder.
"But I implore you to be careful, my dove. Swear that you'll be very
careful, Sophia." Mr. Tiralla was seized with a sudden fear, and wiped
the perspiration from his forehead. He felt burning, although the cold
snow still clung to his fur collar and cap. He took oft his top-coat
and stretched his limbs as though he felt oppressed, whilst she stood
motionless at the table and stared at the packet with gleaming eyes.
"Which is the most efficacious?" she asked in a dreamy voice, "the
powder or the wheat?"
"They're both equally efficacious," he assured her uneasily. "The
wheat is bad enough, but you've only to swallow a little of that white
stuff--oh, you needn't even swallow it, hardly touch it with the tip of
your tongue, and you're done for. It's a deadly poison--strychnine." He
shuddered. "Oh, how could [Pg 38] I bring such a thing home with me? I
am possessed by the devil. Give me it!" He snatched the packet out of
her hands and ran to the stove, in which big logs of wood were
crackling and spluttering.
"Are you mad?" She saw what he was going to do--he intended burning it.
She was at his side in one bound, and, tearing the packet out of his
hand, she hid it in her pocket.
"Give me it, give me it!" he cried.
She laughed at him and pressed her hand tightly against her pocket.
Then he began to wail and lament. Alas, alas, what had he done? How
could he ever have been so foolish as to bring such a thing into the
house? He would never have another peaceful hour, he would always be
thinking that an accident might happen.
"But why," she asked in a calm voice, looking at him fixedly with her
black eyes, "should an accident happen?"
"Alas, alas!" he moaned, and buried his head in his hands.
She had to comfort him. Her words calmed him; he was like a child. Then
he asked her to stroke him; she did that also. At last he wanted to be
helped to bed; he must have been drinking, although he denied it. The
maid had to come as well; and whilst she took off his riding-boots he
put his heavy head on his wife's shoulder, and she had to hold him in
her arms.
When they had got him to bed they both looked very hot and flushed, for
he had been pinching them in fun and had pretended to be quite
helpless.
Then he sent for Röschen, whom he had not seen the whole day, for she
was already on her way to school when he was still snoring in bed, and
when he drove to Gnesen she had not yet returned. And now [Pg 39] he
longed for some one to fondle him. And the little girl knew very well
what her father wanted; so she climbed up on his bed and laid her thin
little arms round his neck and pressed her cool cheek to his. Then
he talked to her in whispers and called her by an the pet names he
could think of. She was his little red-haired girlie, his star, his
song-bird, the apple of his eye, his sun, his balm of Gilead, his
guardian angel, the key which was to open the door of heaven for him.
And the child smiled and stroked him with her soft hands. She loved him
so. He gave her everything her mother would not give her.
Still, she loved her mother in secret. Didn't everybody call her "the
beautiful Mrs. Tiralla"? Didn't the schoolmaster, who was always so
harsh, often send a message to her mother, and even pardon her faults
and favour her just because she was the daughter of the beautiful Mrs.
Tiralla? Rosa knew that she was not pretty; at least, she did not
consider herself so when she plaited her curly, reddish hair before the
looking-glass. Her mother's hair was as black as ebony and as smooth as
silk, and her yellowish complexion and the tinge of red in her cheeks
seemed twice as beautiful as her own freckles.
The growing child longed to be beautiful, although she did not exactly
know why; and it disheartened and depressed her that she did not grow
better-looking, in spite of all her fervent prayers. She used to kneel
down at her bedside every evening in the little room she shared with
Marianna and raise her hands in earnest supplication. She did not even
know herself what all the things were which she prayed for.
Marianna was also a devout Christian, and, when they both lay in their
beds, she would tell the listening child all about signs and wonders,
about spells and [Pg 40] miraculous cures, and about the strange things
that happened in the neighbourhood.
Hadn't farmer Kiebel heard the sound of a horn behind him in the wood
not far from the new Jewish cemetery when he was driving back from
Wronke to Obersitzko after the last fair! "Toot, toot, toot!" He had
got down and had drawn lots of crosses in the snow with his whip in
front of the trembling horses and all around the cart; and then the
black huntsman had rushed past him with horns blowing, dogs barking,
and making a fearful noise. His cloak had flapped so much that it had
almost blown Pan Kiebel down from his cart; but the crosses in the snow
had protected the pious man, and the black huntsman had had to ride on.
And there was a mountain at Ossówiec, where the witches had met last
June, and where they would soon meet again in December, in order to
deliberate where they should go in the shape of dust and wind. But if
you painted "C.M.B.," the initials of the three Kings of the East, on
all the doors and walls, no witch would be able to get in and throw
something into your plate. Or you need only say to yourself, "God bless
it," before you began to eat or drink, and then no witchcraft could
harm your food, for the saints would hold their hands stretched out
over the plate.
Those who regularly prayed to the Holy Mother or to the saints had no
need to fear the devil, who, four weeks ago, had come to miller Kierski
at midnight--the man who lived at Latalice, north of Gradewitz, and was
always swearing and drinking--and had almost wrung his neck off. He had
been left on the dunghill behind his barn, where he lay quite stiff and
blue in the face; and if St. Peter's cock had not flown on to the roof
of the mill and crowed three times, [Pg 41] so that the devil thought
it was the miller's cock crowing in the early morning, the miller would
have been found as dead as a door-nail, with his face turned round to
his back; and his soul would already have been in hell.
Marianna firmly believed that ghosts were screaming in the pines
outside, and that witches were dancing in the wind that howled round
the farm; but above all she believed that the devil was running about
on the Przykop like a will-o'-the-wisp, and was longing to get into the
house, in order to fetch a soul to hell.
But even if she had not so firmly believed it, it would have amused her
to whisper all kinds of strange stories to the trembling child, who had
long ago crept into her bed and was clinging to her. Her stories became
more and more marvellous, more and more weird. The night time, the
moaning of the wind, the plaintive cry of the screech-owls perched in
the old pines in the morass; above all, the darkness of the room, the
deep silence, the loneliness, gave wings to the maid's fancy.
Everything became instinct with life: a creature sighed in every tree,
a voice spoke from every stone, something gasped for air under every
clod of earth, something lurked in every pool. The branches that tapped
against the window-panes were the fingers of the dead, the stars that
shot across the heavens were wandering souls, and the clouds and winds
were full of prophecies.
Once when she was a child, Marianna told Rosa, she had run in amongst
some corn in order to pluck some ears and make herself a wreath of the
red poppies. And there she had been seized by the "Zagak," a big man
with a cudgel in his hand and a hat full of holes on his head, and with
shoes through which all his toes were peeping. If a cart with creaking
wheels had not [Pg 42] happened to drive past at that moment, in which
a farmer was sitting, singing a hymn, the "Zagak" would not have let
her go. But she got off that time with a fright and a torn skirt. She
still shook when she thought of the "Zagak"--ugh! How fortunate it was
that he could not get at her here in her warm bed. The woman shuddered
voluptuously, and she and the child clung still more closely to each
other.
Then Röschen's little fingers clutched hold of Marianna's coarse ones,
and both began to pray with all their might. What else could they do in
the solitude and darkness of the night, surrounded by evil spirits that
crept out of every corner, even out of the human breast? Prayer alone
saved. And they prayed and prayed.
Big drops of perspiration and tears rolled down Röschen's delicate
little face and her limbs trembled.
Oh, if only the Holy Virgin would come and take her under her blue
mantle. She was so terrified and in such pain. Her head ached; her back
and her chest as well; her throat was so swollen that she could hardly
swallow; her eyes burned as if with fever.
"Holy Mother!" The child could hardly look over the feather-bed, as she
tried to pierce the darkness with her terrified eyes, so high had it
been drawn up. "All good spirits praise God! Dear Holy Mother, hail,
Mary!" Oh, there she was, there she stood in the darkness and nodded to
her.
The darkness was no longer dark, the tapping of the fingers against the
window-panes and the soughing of the wind round the house had all at
once lost their terror. Oh, how sweet the Holy Mother looked, how mild,
and so beautiful. She took the terrified child under her protection and
smiled at her, until her burning [Pg 43] eyes dosed, until a glorious
dream came to her in her slumbers and filled her soul with a sweet
terror.
Was it any wonder, then, that Rosa Tiralla should cease petting her
father when he suddenly began to moan and cry out, "Oh, what have I
done? Oh, how terrified I am! I shall never have a quiet hour again.
The devil has a hand in such a game!" and should say to him in a very
earnest voice, "Why are you so terrified? Call on the Holy Mother; she
wears a blue mantle, and she will wrap you in it. I'm often terrified,
but then my fear disappears. Shall I call on her?"
"Yes, oh, yes." At any other time Mr. Tiralla would have burst out
laughing, but to-day he nodded eagerly. And then he whispered in the
child's ear, but so softly that his Sophia, who stood listening near
the table as if ready to pounce on them, could not hear a single word.
"I'm so terrified, I don't know why. Pray, pray."
Rosa slid down from the bed, and, kneeling on the skin rug, pressed her
folded hands against her pale lips. She prayed fervently. They were the
same old prayers which had been repeated mechanically so many times
before; but they gained solemnity in the child's mouth. Her thin voice
sounded deeper and more sonorous; the lamp-light shone on her reddish
hair, that curled around her temples until it looked like a halo.
Mrs. Tiralla raised her head and glanced at her daughter; glanced at
her and started, forgetting for a time the thoughts which had raged
within her with such force that she had grown weak and incapable of
making any resistance. Ah, yes, there was Rosa and there was Rosa's
father. But Rosa was not the exact image of her father, all the same;
she had also inherited [Pg 44] something from her. Mrs. Tiralla
suddenly felt twenty years younger as if by magic. She pictured herself
in the priest's quiet study and heard once more the wonderful stories
with which he had captivated her so irresistibly. She had always
listened to him in silence, but she had grown hot and red. She still
felt how the blood used to rush to her head as though she had been
drinking wine.
Oh, yes, the girl must go to a convent, there was no doubt about that.
They would cut off her curly hair, that gleamed in the lamplight, when
she took the veil; the linen band would cover her brow and her cheek.
Only her small nose and her blue eyes would be seen. Oh, how sweet Rosa
would look in a nun's dress. She would blossom like a rose in the
Saviour's garden. Mrs. Tiralla was seized with a sudden love for her
daughter, and she went up to her and laid her hand on her head.
Rosa was very happy. Her mother had even kissed her when she had said
good night, and she felt as if a flame of light had flashed through
her. She did not care to hear any of Marianna's stories to-night,
although she generally begged for some. "I only want to pray," she
said. And she prayed that her mother might always smile at her. She
admired her so, her slender figure, her beautiful hair, and her velvety
eyes. Nobody was as beautiful as her mother, only the Holy Virgin.
Rosa's eyes closed whilst she was still praying, and in her slumber she
suddenly saw the Holy Mother standing by her bedside. She had exactly
the same face as her own mother and wore the same dress, a dark blue
skirt and a bright red, striped blouse. And the Holy Mother bent over
her, so that she felt her warm breath on her cheek; she was probably
listening [Pg 45] if she were asleep. Then the Holy Mother left her and
listened at the bed where Marianna had been snoring for a long time;
and then she went softly out of the room. Oh, how beautiful she was.
The little girl fell soundly asleep with a prayer on her lips.
But Marianna was not asleep, even though she had pretended to be. What
was her mistress doing, wandering about the house like that during the
hours of the night? The country girl's hearing was as sharp as that of
any denizen of the woods, and she could hear her going softly up and
down the stairs and wandering restlessly through the rooms. Why wasn't
the Pani asleep? And why had she come to their room? She must be up to
something.
As soon as the child was fast asleep Marianna sat up in bed and placed
her hand behind her ear. Now her mistress was in the kitchen. _Psia
krew!_ what was she rattling the coffee-mill for? Or was it the tin in
which the sugar was kept?
"All good spirits!" The girl made the sign of the cross. Was the woman
in league with the devil? The master had brought poison from Gnesen,
poison for the rats. The servant's observant eyes had noticed the box
on the table, the white box from the chemist's, with the black death's
head on it. If now that woman downstairs were to put some of it in
master's coffee or among the sifted sugar, of which he loved to pour
half a basinful into his cup? Holy Mother!
The maid crouched down in her bed and drew the feather bed over her
ears. She would neither see nor hear anything. What business was it of
hers? The master was a kind man, but the mistress was really very kind
too, and it was a difficult matter for such a poor servant-girl, who
had already got two children [Pg 46] on her hands, to side with either
party. It would be much better to have nothing to do with the whole
affair.
But in spite of putting both fingers in her ears, for the thick feather
bed was not enough, she still heard her mistress wandering restlessly
backwards and forwards. And that went on till dawn, and prevented her
falling asleep. She generally snored the whole night through, but
to-day she heard the cock crowing on the dunghill and the dull lowing
of the cows before she closed her eyes.
She overslept herself. When she at last awoke from her uneasy slumbers
she found Rosa standing before the little bit of looking-glass plaiting
her hair, and from the yard came the clatter of wooden shoes and the
rattle of the chain in the well as Jendrek drew up the bucket.
"Holy Mary!" cried Marianna, as she jumped out of bed. "Why didn't you
wake me, you wretch?" she said to the child furiously.
"I was just--just going to do it," answered Rosa in a tone of excuse.
As she stood there in her short petticoats and bare shoulders she
looked very small and thin. "I was just going to shake you."
But you could see that Rosa had never thought of waking the servant,
her thoughts were otherwise occupied. She was still dreaming with her
eyes open. Oh, if only she could have told some one what she had
dreamt--it had been so beautiful. The Holy Mother had let her hold the
Child Jesus in her arms, and she had felt the soft, warm little body on
her breast. How it had clung to her. Rosa smiled blissfully to herself
as she looked in the tarnished bit of looking-glass, all stained with
soap-suds.
Marianna ran down into the kitchen without washing [Pg 47] herself or
doing her hair. Oh, dear, there stood her mistress at the fireplace,
her hair beautifully done and as neat as ever. Had she even made the
coffee?
"The coffee is ready; you're so late," said Mrs. Tiralla. But she did
not scold the servant for sleeping too long, she merely handed her the
tray with the enormous coffee-cup on. "There, carry it in to him. I've
already put sugar in it."
Marianna stared at her mistress in amazement. Her drowsiness suddenly
disappeared; what she had thought of during the night suddenly occurred
to her again. She stammered something and remained as if rooted to the
spot, until her mistress said to her, laughing, "Take it to him. Why do
you stand there like an idiot?"
No, it would be quite impossible for anybody to laugh like that who had
put poison in the coffee. Marianna drew a breath of relief. But as she
carried the tray across the stone passage she made the sign of the
cross over it--"God bless it!"--as a kind of security. Now nothing
could harm it. And as she smelt the warm, strong coffee, she could not
help drinking some of it. She had had nothing to eat as yet, something
warm would do her good. How strong the coffee was. It tasted quite
bitter in spite of the sugar--pooh! But it was very good, all the same.
She took another big gulp.
"_Psia krew_, you rascally woman! I suppose you're drinking some of my
coffee, as I'm not getting it," shouted Mr. Tiralla from his bedroom. A
boot, thrown by an expert hand, flew through the half-open door right
against Marianna's apron. She gave a loud scream and let the tray fall;
the sweetened coffee ran over her feet and along the stone passage.
"_Psia krew!_" A second boot came flying. The [Pg 48] door was thrown
wide open, and there was Mr. Tiralla sitting on the edge of his bed
angling with his bare feet for his slippers, which had disappeared
under the bed.
The maid stood on the threshold, soaked.
Mr. Tiralla burst into a loud laugh. "What a blockhead you are, to be
sure!" he shouted, slapping his thighs. "Good heavens, was there ever
such an idiotic person! Don't stare at me so stupidly. Come, come, you
needn't begin to cry directly. Go and fetch some more coffee."
"The Pani will hit me," the girl sobbed. "I'm so frightened, so
terribly frightened."
"Sophia," shouted Mr. Tiralla, who had had a very good night, "Sophia,
this stupid girl has spilt the coffee; now don't hit her."
Mrs. Tiralla was already on the spot. She grew deadly pale and then
burning red as she saw the sweetened coffee running along the ground
like a brown stream.
The servant ducked down; now the mistress would be sure to hit her. But
she did nothing of the sort. She did not even raise her hand in menace,
she simply said, "It wasn't to be. Make him some more coffee." Then she
fetched a cloth and wiped it up with her own hands, collected the
broken bits of china, and said nothing more.
Marianna felt quite confused. She had never broken anything without
being punished for it by her different mistresses. And to-day she
hadn't even got a box on the ears nor been threatened with one. She
went about like a dog on the scent; there was something wrong here. The
place was haunted. She kept her eye on the mistress, but she was
sitting in the room near the window reading. The master had gone into
[Pg 49] the fields to try to shoot a hare; and Rosa was at school. Oh,
if only she had had a soul to speak to.
The maid felt oppressed, as though a very important secret were
weighing her down. Besides, she really did feel as if she had a heavy
weight on her chest. What could it be? She had to draw her breath the
whole time, and she could not swallow; she felt as if she were choking.
Oh, how terrified she was! And then she had such an awful thirst, her
mouth was quite parched. She staggered to the bucket; she wanted to
drink, but she could not. Holy Mother, why could she not swallow? All
of a sudden she was seized with a fit of trembling, which grew so
severe that she had to sit down on the floor just where she stood. Oh,
how ill she felt. Her eyes grew dim, and she was bathed in
perspiration. Now she could not breathe at all. She tried to scream, to
cry for help; she could not do that either. She endeavoured to get up,
but she was perfectly stiff; her head felt as if it were in splints.
Her hands were clenched as though she were in a fit. Oh, God, have
mercy! Was she going to die? How her limbs ached.
The maid lay there in a state of collapse, until she gradually
recovered so far as to be able to rise, moaning and groaning, and
stagger out of the kitchen into the yard. There she was very sick.
Jendrek came up to her and laughed as he saw her standing there. Ha-ha,
had she been to a dance, unknown to everybody? But the harvest-homes
were over, and Twelfth Day had not yet come round. "What had she been
eating or drinking to make herself so ill?" he inquired in a scoffing
tone.
She did not answer. All she could do was to raise her head a very
little and give him a strange look.
He grew terrified when he saw how enormous the [Pg 50] pupils of her
eyes had become. Ugh! she did look awful. Instead of telling her how
pleased he was to think that she for once in a way could sympathize
with his feelings on a Monday morning, he grasped her by the arm and
asked, "Is anything the matter? Tell me."
She groaned and gave a feeble nod. When he had asked her what she had
been eating, the thought had pierced her stupefied brain that she must
have been bewitched, that she must have eaten or dr----
"Poison, poison!" she suddenly shrieked, and throwing herself on the
ground she rolled about and screamed, so that the man shrunk back in
fright.
Mrs. Tiralla must also have heard the girl's shrieks, for she came out
of the house at once. She ran up to the maid, but as the latter
continued to scream "Poison, poison!" in a loud voice, and roll about
as if she were mad, with her hands pressed against her body, the woman
grew so deadly pale that Jendrek thought she would also fall down.
"Silence, silence!" she cried hastily, holding her hand before
Marianna's mouth. But as the latter pushed her hand away and went on
screaming, she looked round like a terrified animal at bay.
Jendrek felt quite anxious when he saw his mistress's eyes. "Shall I go
to Gradewitz and fetch the doctor?" he asked timidly.
"No," cried the woman angrily. And then, rousing herself, she seized
hold of his smock and cried, "Are you mad? She's only drunk, only
drunk, nothing else."
"I'm not drunk!" screamed Marianna. Then she added in a furious voice,
"That fool, that Jendrek, says I'm drunk; but let him sweep before his
own door first. I've not drunk anything, not a drop, and [Pg 51] that
I'll swear." All at once Marianna recovered her voice. "That fool! It's
poison that I've got in my body. I've been poisoned; I'm going to
die--oh, oh!"
The man opened his eyes in amazement.
When Mrs. Tiralla noticed that he was listening intently to what
Marianna was saying she grew as red as she before had been pale. Then,
with a short, forced laugh, she said, "Nonsense. Poison? Where should
you have got it from? You're raving, my girl. Come," she added, helping
the girl to rise, "lean on my arm. You're already better, aren't you?
I'll put you to bed. I'll make you a strong cup of tea. I'll give you a
hot-water bottle. And then, when you're better, we'll see if one of my
petticoats will fit you; you must be dressed more warmly." She felt the
girl's thin skirt. "Why, she has nothing on. She must have caught cold.
I'll take care of her. You are better now, aren't you? Holy Mother!
Marianna, speak! You're better, aren't you?"
Marianna shook her head. She pretended to feel very wretched once more,
and, rolling her eyes, she began to groan and lean so heavily against
her mistress that they both stumbled.
Jendrek had to come to the rescue. They took the girl between them and
dragged her into the house and up the stairs to bed.
When the man saw how kind his mistress was to Marianna, he stared at
her in surprise. "What a good woman she must be," he thought to
himself.
Whilst Mrs. Tiralla was rubbing the servant's icy-cold feet and hands
she continued to repeat the same question, "You're better, aren't you?"
It touched Jendrek to see how anxious the good woman was. He thought
that he would like to be ill as well; and he made up his mind that he
would [Pg 52] groan like that next Monday and scream, "Poison, poison!"
and lie on the ground and roll about. It must be very nice to have your
cheek and forehead stroked by the mistress's soft hands, as she was
stroking Marianna's, and to see how she worried about you. And then she
had run into the kitchen and brought her a cup full of good, warm tea,
and had held it to her lips and said, "Drink, dear, drink."
But Marianna did not want to drink. She almost knocked the cup out of
her mistress's hand. And when the latter tried to persuade her in her
soft voice, "Do drink, it'll do you good," she answered pertly, "I'll
take precious good care I don't. I shall not drink it," and turned her
face to the wall.
Why on earth wouldn't she drink that good cup of tea? The man would
very much have liked to know that.
But Mrs. Tiralla did not ask why. The cup rattled in her hand, and as
she stepped back from the bed she trembled so that she had to sit down
on the nearest chair. She closed her eyes for a moment. But when she
opened them again and saw the man's questioning looks, she gave him a
sweet, almost timid smile, and said, "I'm not very strong. Such things
affect me so. Oh, what a fright it gave me."
As they were going down the steep, dark stairs, she felt for his arm.
"Lead me, Jendrek, I can't walk alone. Oh, poor Marianna!"
[Pg 53]