A FRIEND'S ADVICE.
Few things in this world are more unpleasant than to be obliged to
admit the excellence of a friend's advice when it runs counter to all
our most secret and decided inclinations.
Harry Leskjewitsch finds himself thus disagreeably situated the evening
after Lato's visit to Komaritz.
While Lato, "gens-d'armed" by two lackeys, is eating his late dinner
with Olga, Harry is striding discontentedly to and fro in the steep,
uneven court-yard at Komaritz, muttering between his teeth,--
"Lato is right, quite right. I am behaving unpardonably: no respectable
man would play this double part. I must go away."
Yes, away; but how can he go away while he knows that Baron Wenkendorf
is at Zirkow? It appears to him that he can still do something to
prevent Zdena from giving ear to her elderly suitor, for such he
certainly seems to be. Harry has been often at Zirkow of late,--no
fewer than three times since his entanglement,--and he has consequently
had opportunity to watch Zdena's behaviour. Her feeling for the man has
certainly reached another stage; she conducts herself with more gravity
towards him, and with more cordiality; she often turns to him with
trifling questions, and seems to take a kind of pleasure in his
society.
"Who knows?" Harry says to himself, clinching his hand and almost mad
with jealousy, as he paces the court-yard to and fro.
The crescent moon in the August sky creeps over the dark roof of the
brew-house. The air is freshened by the fragrance of the group of
walnuts; but another and more penetrating odour mingles with it,--the
odour of old wood impregnated with some kind of fermenting stuff.
There, against the uneven wall of the old brew-house, stands a row of
huge casks.
The casks recall to Harry memories that fill him with sweet and bitter
sensations. Into one of them he had crept with Zdena, during a storm,
in the early years of their acquaintance. Ah, what a bewitching little
creature she was then! He can see her distinctly now, with her long,
golden hair; her large, brown eyes, that had so truthful a gaze; the
short upper lip of the childish mouth, that seemed always on the point
of asking a question; yes, even the slender, childish hands he can see,
with the wide, white apron-sleeves; the short skirt and the bare little
legs, usually, it must be confessed, much scratched. He recalls the
short, impatient movement with which she used to pull her skirts over
her knees when she sat down. In one of those casks they had taken
refuge from a shower,--he and she,--and they had sat there, close
together, looking out upon the world through the gray curtain of the
rain. How comically she had peered out, now and then holding out her
hand to make sure that it was still pouring! It would not stop. Harry
can hear at this moment the rustle of the rain through the foliage of
the walnuts, its drip upon the cask, and the cackling of the agitated
geese in the court-yard. He had told the child stories to amuse her,
and she had gone to sleep with her head on his shoulder, and finally he
had taken off his jacket to wrap it about her as he carried her through
the rain into the house.
Oh, what a lecture they had had from Mademoiselle, who, meanwhile, had
been sending everywhere to find the children, and was half crazy with
anxiety!
"I cannot conceive why you should have been anxious, mademoiselle," he
had said, with all the dignity of his twelve years. "You ought to know
that Zdena is well taken care of when she is with me."
Twelve years have passed since then, but it seems to him suddenly that
it all happened only yesterday.
"Well taken care of," he mutters to himself,--"well taken care of. I
believe that she would be well taken care of with me to-day, but--good
heavens!"
His lips are dry, his throat feels contracted. Up to the present moment
he has regarded his betrothal to Paula as a disagreeable temporary
entanglement; never has he viewed it as a serious, enduring misfortune.
Lato's words have thrown a vivid light upon his position; he sees
clearly that he is no longer a free agent, and that every hour passed
with Paula rivets his fetters more securely. Yes, Lato is right; he
must go away. But he must see her once more before he goes,--only once.