Yes, Molnar's wife had the devil in her, and it was her family
heritage. Her father, a poor cottager and day labourer, had been in
his youth one of the most notorious and boldest brawlers in the
neighborhood; even now, when prematurely aged and half-broken down by
want and hard work, people willingly avoided him and did not sit at the
same table in the tavern if it could be helped. In former years he had
been a frequent inmate of the county prison, where the bruises and cuts
received in the brawl on whose account he was incarcerated had time to
heal; two years before he had been in jail three months because he had
used a manure-fork to prevent a tax-collector from seizing his bed, and
the beautiful Panna had then gone to the capital once or twice a week
to carry him cheese, wine, bread, and underclothing, and otherwise make
his situation easier, so far as she could.
The family vice of sudden fits of passion had increased to a tragedy in
the destiny of the only son. He was a handsome fellow, slender as a
pine-tree, the image of his sister, whom he loved with a tenderness
very unusual among peasants; he early became the supporter and
companion of his father in his Sunday brawls, and the village was not
at all displeased when he was drafted into the army. It would have
been an easy matter, as he was an only son, to release him from
military service, but he was obliged to go because two fathers of
soldiers could not be found in the village to give the testimony
necessary for his liberation. He became a conscript in 1865, and, a
year after, the double war between Prussia and Italy broke out. The
young fellow's regiment was stationed in the Venetian provinces. One
night he was assigned to outpost duty in the field; the enemy was not
near, it was mid-summer, a sultry night, and the poor wretch fell
asleep. Unfortunately, the commander of the guard, a young lieutenant
full of over-zeal for the service, was inspecting the outposts and
discovered the sleeper, to whom he angrily gave a kick to recall him to
consciousness of his duty. The lad started up, and without hesitation
or reflection, dealt his assailant a furious blow in the face. There
was a great uproar, soldiers rushed forward, and had the utmost
difficulty in mastering the enraged young fellow; he was taken to
headquarters in irons, and, after a short trial by court-martial, shot
on the same day. The family did not learn the terrible news until
weeks later, from a dry official letter of the regimental commander.
How terrible was the grief of the father and sister! The man aged ten
years in a week, and the girl, at that time a child twelve years old,
became so pale and thin from sorrow that the neighbors thought she
would not survive it. Not survive it? What do we not outlive! She
conquered the anguish and developed into the most beautiful maiden in
the village.
There was an austere charm, an unintentional, unconscious attraction in
her, which won every one. Her notorious origin was not visited upon
her, and even the rich girls in the village gladly made her their
friend. While at work in the fields she sang in a ringing voice; in
the spinning-room, in winter, she was full of jests and merry tales, as
gay and gracious as beseemed her age. Probably on account of her
vivacious temperament and the feeling of vigour which robust health
bestows, she was extremely fond of dancing, and never failed on Sundays
to appear in the large courtyard of the tavern when, in the afternoon,
the whirling and stamping began. Her beauty would doubtless have made
her the most popular partner among the girls, had not the lads felt a
certain fear of her. A purring kitten among her girl companions, ready
to give and take practical jokes, she was all claws and teeth against
men, and many a bold youth who, after the dance, attempted to take the
usual liberties, met with so severe a rebuff that he bore for a week a
memento in the shape of a scratch across his whole face. Therefore she
did not have a superabundance of partners, and thus escaped the
jealousy which, otherwise, her charms would certainly have roused in
the other girls.
A dispensation of Providence rendered her irritability the means of
deciding the whole course of her life.
One Sunday, late in the summer, soon after the reaping and threshing
were over--she was then twenty--she again stood in the bright warm
afternoon sunshine in the spacious courtyard of the village tavern,
among a gay group of giggling lasses, waiting with joyful impatience
for the dancing to begin. The two village gipsies who made bricks
during the week and played on Sundays, were already there, leaning
against one of the wooden pillars of the porch in front of the house,
and tuning their fiddles. The lads crowded together, shouting jesting
remarks to the group of girls, who answered them promptly and to the
point. One after another the young men left their companions and took
from the laughing bevy of maidens a partner, who, as village custom
required, at first resisted, but finally yielded to the gentle
force--not without some pleasantly exciting struggling and pulling--and
was soon whirling around with her cavalier amid shouting and stamping,
till the dust rose in clouds.
The beautiful Panna, for reasons already known to us, was not the first
person invited to dance. But at last her turn came also, and she could
jump with a neighbour's son, till she was out of breath, to her heart's
content. After spending more than fifteen minutes in vigourous, rapid
motion, she finally sank, in happy exhaustion, upon a pile of bricks
near a coach-house which was being built, and with flaming cheeks and
panting bosom struggled for breath. Pista, the cartwright, profited by
the moment to approach, and with gay cries and gestures invite her to
dance again. Pista was a handsome fellow, but had the unfortunate
propensity of drinking on Sundays, and this time was evidently
intoxicated. The vinous suitor was not to Panna's taste, besides, she
was already tired, and she did not answer his first speech. But as he
did not desist, but seized her arm to drag her up and away by force,
she tartly answered that she would not dance now. This only made him
still more persistent.
"Why, why, you fierce little darling, do you suppose you can't be
mastered?" he cried, trying with both hands to seize her beautiful
black head to press a smack upon her lips. She thrust him back once,
twice, with a more and more violent shove, but he returned to the
attack, becoming ruder and more vehement. Then she lost her
self-control, and the choleric family blood suddenly seethed in her
veins. Bending down to the heap of bricks on which she had just sat,
she grasped a fragment and, with the speed of lightning, dealt her
persecutor a furious blow. Misfortune guided her hand, and she struck
him full in the face. Pista shrieked and staggered to the neighbouring
wall, against which he leaned half-fainting, while between the fingers
of the hands which he had raised to the wounded spot, the red blood
gushed in a horribly abundant stream.
All this had been the work of a moment, and the young people who filled
the courtyard did not notice the outrageous act until the mischief was
done. Shrieks, running hither and thither, and confusion followed.
The fiddlers stopped and stretched their necks, but prudently kept
aloof, as they had learned to do during frequent brawls; the girls
screamed and wrung their hands, the youths shouted hasty questions,
crowding around their bleeding companion. Water was quickly procured,
cold bandages were applied to the swollen, shapeless face, and other
efforts were made to relieve him, while at the same time he was
besieged with questions about the event.
After dealing the fatal blow Panna had stood for a moment deadly pale,
as if paralyzed, and then darted off as though pursued by fiends.
Perhaps this was fortunate, for she would have fared badly if the
enraged lads had had her in their power, when all, amid the confused
medley of outcries, had learned the truth. There was no time to pursue
her, for Pista seemed to be constantly growing worse; the cold water
and fomentations did not stop the bleeding; he soon lost consciousness
and lay on the ground amid the terrified, helpless group, an inert
mass, until some one made the sensible proposal to carry him home to
his mother, a poor widow, which, with their united strength, was
instantly done.
Meanwhile, Panna had rushed to her own home, locked herself in, and sat
on the bench by the stove, an image of grief and despair. She was
incapable of coherent thought, nothing but the spectacle of the
bleeding Pista staggering against the wall, stood distinctly before her
mind. But she could not give herself up to her desolate brooding long:
at the end of fifteen minutes the bolted door shook violently. She
started up and listened; it was her father, and she reluctantly went to
the door and opened it. The old man entered, shot the bolt behind him,
and asked in a trembling voice:
"For God's sake, child, what have you done?'"
Panna burst into a flood of tears; they were the first she had shed
since the incident described.
"He pressed upon me too boldly. And I didn't mean to do it. I only
wanted to keep him off."
"You were possessed. The devil is in us. To kill a man by a blow!"
The girl shrieked aloud. "Kill, do you say?"
"Sol was just told. They say he is dead."
"That is impossible, it's a lie," Panna murmured in a hollow tone,
while her face looked corpse-like. She seemed to cower into herself
and to grow smaller, as if the earth was swallowing her by inches. But
this condition lasted only a few minutes, then she roused herself and
hurried out, ere her father could detain her. She entered a narrow
path which ran behind the houses and was usually deserted, and raced as
fast as her feet would carry her to the hut occupied by Frau Molnar,
which was close at hand. Springing across the narrow ditch which
bordered the back of the yard, she hurried through the kitchen-garden
behind the house and in an instant was in the only room it contained
except the kitchen. On the bed lay a human form from which came a
groan, and beside it sat old Frau Molnar, who wrung her hands without
turning her eyes from her suffering son. Thank God, he was not dead,
the first glance at the piteous scene showed that. Panna involuntarily
clasped her hands and uttered a deep sigh of relief. Frau Molnar now
first noticed Panna's entrance; at first she seemed unable to believe
her eyes, and gazed fixedly at the girl, with her mouth wide open, then
starting up she rushed at her and began to belabour her with both
fists, while heaping, in a voice choked by fury, the most horrible
invectives upon her head. Panna feebly warded off the blows with
outstretched arms, hung her head, and stammered softly:
"Frau Molnar, Frau Molnar, spare the sick man, it will hurt him if you
make such a noise. Have pity on me and tell me what the injury is."
"You insolent wench, you God-forsaken,"--a fresh torrent of vile
invectives followed--"do you still venture to cross my threshold?
Begone, or I'll serve you as you did my poor Pista."
The mother again gained the ascendancy over the vengeful woman.
She turned from Panna, and hastened to her son, on whom she flung
herself, wailing aloud and weeping. The girl took advantage of the
diversion to leave the room slowly, unnoticed. She had seen enough;
Pista was alive; but he must be badly injured, for his whole head was
wrapped in bandages, and he had evidently neither seen nor heard
anything of the last scene which, moreover, had lasted only a brief
time.
Panna did not go far. A wooden bench stood by the wall of the house
under the little window of the kitchen, which looked out into the yard.
Here she sat down and remained motionless until it grew dark. She had
seen by the bandages that the doctor must have been there, and hoped
that he would return in the evening. If this hope was not fulfilled,
she could go to him without danger after nightfall, for she was
determined to speak to him that very day and obtain the information
which Pista's mother had refused. Before darkness had entirely closed
in the physician really did appear, and entered the hut without heeding
the girl sitting on a bench near the door, perhaps without noticing
her. Panna waited patiently till, at the end of a long quarter of an
hour, he came out, then, with swift decision she went up to him and
touched his arm. He turned and when he recognized her, exclaimed in
surprise: "Panna!"
"Softly, Doctor," she pleaded with glance and voice, then added: "Tell
me frankly how he is, frankly, I entreat you."
"You have done something very, very bad there," replied the physician
hesitatingly, then paused.
"His life is not in danger?"
"Perhaps not, but he will be a cripple all his days. One eye is
completely destroyed, the nose entirely crushed, the upper lip gashed
entirely through, and two teeth are gone."
"Horrible, horrible!" groaned Panna, wringing her hands in speechless
grief.
"He will not lose his life, as I said, though he has lost a great deal
of blood from the wound in the lips, and the lost eye may yet cause us
trouble, but the poor fellow will remain a monster all his days. No
girl will ever look at him again."
"There's no need of it," she answered hastily, and when the physician
looked at her questioningly, she went on more quietly as if talking to
herself: "If only he gets well, if he is only able to be up again."
Then, thanking the doctor, she bade him good-night, and returned slowly
and absently to her father's hut.
All night long Panna tossed sleeplessly on her bed, and with the
earliest dawn she rose, went to her father, who was also awake, and
begged him to go to old Frau Molnar and entreat her forgiveness and
permission for her, Panna, to nurse the wounded man.
At the same time she took from her neck a pretty silver crucifix, such
as peasant women wear, a heritage from her mother, who died young, and
gave it to her father to offer to the old woman as an atonement. She
had nothing more valuable, or she would have bestowed it too.
"That is well done," said her father, and went out to discharge his
duty as messenger.
It was a hard nut which he had to crack. The old mother was again
fierce and wrathful and received him with a face as black as night; but
he accosted her gently, reminded her of her Christian faith, and
finally handed her the silver atonement. This touched the old dame's
heart. She burst into a torrent of tears, upbraided him with the
magnitude of her misery, said that she would never be able to forgive,
but she saw that the girl had acted without any evil design, that she
was sorry----
Pista, who had been delirious during the night, but was now better, had
hitherto listened quietly and intently. Now he interrupted the flood
of words his mother poured forth amid her sobs, and said softly, yet
firmly:
"Panna is not entirely to blame; I was persistent, I was tipsy, she was
right to defend herself. True, she need not have been so savage, but
how can she help her blood? I ought to have taken care of myself; I
ought to have known whom I was chaffing." Then, turning to the
visitor, he added: "If it will soothe Panna to know that I am not angry
with her, send your daughter here, and I will tell her so myself."
Fifteen minutes later Panna was in the Molnars' hut. She entreated the
old mother to attend to her household affairs and not trouble herself
about the sick man; that should be her care. She arranged the
wretched bed, cleared up the room, brought Pista water to drink when he
felt thirsty, and when everything was done, sat silently beside the
bed. Pista quietly submitted to everything, and only gazed strangely
with his one eye at the beautiful girl.
In the course of the morning the physician came and renewed the
bandages. Panna stood by his side and kept all sorts of things ready,
but she did not have courage to look at the wounds. The doctor thought
it would be beneficial to have ice. But where was ice to be obtained
in a village at this season of the year! The brewery probably had
some, but would not be likely to give any away. Panna said nothing,
but when the bandages had been renewed and the physician had gone, she
hurried directly to the brewery, went to the manager, a good-natured,
beery old fellow, and entreated him, in touching words, for some ice
for a sick person. The manager blinked at her with his little
half-shut eyes, and answered: "You can have it, my child, but not
gratis."
Panna lowered her eyes and murmured mournfully: "I will pay what you
ask, only not now, I haven't any money, surely you will wait a little
while."
"It needn't be cash, one little kiss will do."
Panna flushed crimson, and a flash of anger like the lightning of a
sudden storm blazed over her face; but she controlled herself and held
up her compressed lips to the voluptuary, who rudely smacked them and
then took from her hand the pipkin she had brought, returning it in a
few minutes filled with ice.
The supply did not last long, but, when it was exhausted, Panna did not
go herself, sending in her place old Frau Molnar with a pleasant
greeting to the manager of the brewery. True, the latter frowned and
sneeringly asked why Her Highness did not appear in person, but he had
wisdom enough to give the ice for which she asked.
At the end of a week Pista had improved so much that the ice-bandages
were no longer needed, and he did not require constant nursing. Panna
who, hitherto, had come early in the morning and returned late in the
evening, now appeared only twice a day to enquire for the sick man and
bring him some refreshment, if it were only a handful of blackberries.
Of course, during all this time, there was no end of putting heads
together and whispering, but Panna did not trouble herself about it,
and quietly obeyed the dictates of her conscience.
Thus three weeks had passed since the fateful day. When, on the third
Sunday, Panna entered the Molnar's hut at the usual hour, this time
with a small bottle of wine under her apron, she found Pista, for the
first time, up, and dressed. He was just turning his back to the door
as the girl came in. She uttered a little exclamation of surprise,
Pista turned quickly and--Panna started back with a sudden shriek, the
flask fell shattered on the floor, and she covered her face with both
hands. It was her first sight of the young man's horribly disfigured
countenance without a bandage.
Pista went up to the trembling girl and said mournfully: "I frightened
you, but it must have happened some day. I felt just as you do now
when, a week ago, I made my mother hand me a looking-glass for the
first time. I see that it will be best for me to become a Capuchin
monk, henceforth I must give up appearing before the eyes of girls."
Panna hastily let her hands fall, gazed full at him with her sparkling
black eyes, and said gently:
"You always have girls in your head. Must you please them all?
Wouldn't one satisfy you?"
"Why, of course, but the one must be had first," replied Pista, with
forced cheerfulness.
Panna flushed crimson and made no reply; Pista looked at her in
surprise and doubt, but also remained silent, and in a few minutes the
girl went away with drooping head.
Pista now went to work again and endured days of bitter suffering. He
was ridiculed because a girl had thrashed him, the cruel nickname of
"the Hideous One" was given him, people gazed at him with horror
whenever he appeared in the street. Panna continued to visit him every
Sunday, but he received her distantly, taciturnly, even sullenly.
So Christmas came. On Christmas Eve Panna had a long talk with her
father, and the next morning, after church, he again went to old Frau
Molnar and without any preamble, said bluntly and plainly:
"Why won't Pista marry my Panna?"
The widow clasped her hands and answered:
"Would she take him?"
"You are all blind mice together," scolded the peasant, "of course she
would, or surely she wouldn't do what she has done for months past.
Isn't it enough that she runs after the obstinate blockhead? She can't
ask him to have her."
Just then Pista himself came in. His mother hesitatingly told him what
she had just heard, and the old woman looked at him enquiringly and
expectantly. When the young man heard what they were discussing he
became very pale and agitated, but at first said nothing. Not until
his mother and the guest assailed him impatiently with "Well?" and "Is
it all right?" did he summon up his composure and reply:
"Panna is a good girl, and may God bless her. But I, too, am no
scoundrel. Honest folk would spit in my face, if I should accept
Panna's sacrifice. I'd rather live a bachelor forever than let her do
me a favour and poison her own life."
His mother and would-be father-in-law talked in vain, he still
persisted:
"I cannot believe that Panna loves me, and I won't take favours."
The simple, narrow-minded fellow did not know that the sense of justice
and absolute necessity can move a human soul as deeply, urge it as
strongly to resolves, as love itself, so from his standpoint he really
was perfectly right.
To cut the matter short: Pista remained obdurate from Christmas until
New Year, notwithstanding that his mother and Panna's father beset him
early and late. The girl suffered very keenly during this period, and
her eyes were always reddened by tears. But when New Year came, and
still Pista did not bestir himself, the strong, noble girl, after
violent conflicts in her artless mind, formed a great resolution, went
to Pista herself, and said without circumlocution, excitement, or
hesitation:
"I understand your pride and, if I were a man, would behave as you do.
But I beg you to have pity on me. If you don't have an aversion to me,
or love another, marry me. I shall not do you a favour, you will do me
one. Unless I become your wife, I shall never be happy and contented
so long as I live, but always miserable whenever I think of you. As
your wife, I shall be at peace, and satisfied with myself. That you
are now ugly is of no consequence. I shall see you as you were,
before--" Here, for the first time, she hesitated, then with a sudden
transition, not without a faint smile, said:
"And it will have its good side, too, I shall not be obliged to be
jealous."
"But I shall!" exclaimed Pista, who had hitherto listened in silence.
"Nor you either, Pista," she said quickly, "for whenever I see your
face I shall say to myself how much I must make amends to you and,
believe me, it will bind me far more firmly than the handsomest
features could."
Pista was not a man of great intellect or loquacious speech. He now
threw his arms around Panna's neck, patted her, caressed her, covered
her head and her face with kisses, and burst into weeping that would
soften a stone. Panna wept a little, too, then they remained together
until long after noon and, in the evening, went to the spinning-room
and presented themselves as betrothed lovers. Three weeks after they
were married amid a great crowd of the villagers, some of whom pitied
Pista, others Panna, and from that time until the moment when the
incidents about to be described occurred, they lived together five
years in a loyal, model marriage.