The notary left the same night because his official duties required his
presence in the city the following morning. On the day after, Gronski,
whom Pani Otocka requested to act as her representative, with Ladislaus
and Dolhanski departed for the notarial bureau. All three were troubled
and curious about the will, of which the notary did not drop a single
hint. Dolhanski feigned a jocose mien and displayed more sangfroid than
he really possessed. He was most anxious that something should "drop
off" for him. He was a man who had squandered a large fortune, but, not
having changed his habits, kept on living as if he had not lost
anything. Therefore he sustained himself upon the surface of life by
the aid of extraordinary, almost acrobatic, efforts, of which after all
he made no secret. In general, he was a sponger and possessed a million
faults, but also certain social qualities for which he was esteemed.
Belonging to an aristocratic club, he played cards with unusual good
luck, but irreproachably. He never borrowed money from people in his
own sphere; never gossiped, and was a tolerably loyal friend. Lack of
education he supplied with cleverness and a certain intellectual grasp.
He jested about himself, but it was unsafe to jest at him, because he
possessed, besides wit, a certain candor which bordered upon cynicism.
So he was not only countenanced but willingly received. Gronski, for
whom Dolhanski had such high regard that he permitted him alone to jest
about him, said that if Dolhanski only had as great a gift of making
money as he had of spending it, he would have been a millionaire.
But while waiting for such a change, heavy moments fell upon Dolhanski,
particularly in spring when the play at the club slackened or when the
outing season began. Then he felt fatigued after the winter struggles
and sighed for something to turn up which would not require any labor.
The will of Zarnowski might be such a gratuity, although Dolhanski did
not expect much, as during the lifetime of the deceased he did nothing
to deserve it. He even frankly repeated that his precious uncle bored
him. He reckoned, however, that something might be sliced off for him;
enough for the temporary pacification of his creditors or, better
still, for a trip to a fashionable, aristocratic French seaside resort.
Before leaving Warsaw he announced in the club that he would return
sitting upon a pillow stuffed with pawn-tickets. At present he
attempted, with a certain affected humor, to convince Gronski and
Ladislaus that by rights neither Pani Otocka with her sister, nor the
Krzyckis, but himself ought to be the chief beneficiary.
"One of the female cousins," he said, "is a warm widow, who has a fat
fortune from her husband, and the other is a budding muse, who ought to
be satisfied with ambrosia. What a pity, that I am not the sole
relative of the deceased!"
Here he addressed Ladislaus:
"The Krzyckis, I think, need not be considered, because you have had,
as I heard, a dispute about the Rzeslewo boundary. I hope that you will
not get anything."
"What is the use of your hoping?" said Gronski. "Limit, above all
things, your wants."
"You remind me of my lamented father," answered Dolhanski.
"He certainly must have repeated that to you often."
"Too often, and besides, he set himself up as an example, but I
demonstrated to him, as plainly as two times two are four, that I could
and ought to live on a higher scale than he."
"What did you tell him?"
"I spoke to him thus: Firstly, Papa has a son, while I am childless,
and again, I am a better noble than he."
"In what respect?"
"Very plainly, since I can count one generation more in my line of
nobility."
"Bravo!" exclaimed Krzycki. "What did your father say to that?"
"He called me a dunce, but I saw he was pleased with it. Ah, if my
conceits would only please Pani Otocka as they once did Papa. But I am
convinced that my constancy and my appetite will avail me naught. My
dear cousin is after all more practical than she seems. You would
imagine that both sisters live only on the fragrance of flowers; and
yet when they learned of a possible inheritance, they hastily arrived
at Jastrzeb."
"I can assure you that you are mistaken. Mother invited them last year
while in Krynica and now, at least a week before the death of Uncle
Zarnowski, she reminded them of their promise. They wrote back that
they could not come because they had a guest. Then mother invited the
guest also."
"If that is so, it is different. Now, not only do I understand your
mother, but as you are a shapely youth and, in addition, younger than
myself, I begin to fear for Cousin Otocka's fortune, which more justly
belongs to me."
"You need have no fear," answered Krzycki drily.
"Does that mean that you prefer pounds to roubles? Considering the rate
of exchange, I would prefer them also, but I fear that too many of them
might have sunk in the Channel on the way from England."
"If you are so much concerned about that," said Gronski, "you might ask
Miss Anney about the precise amount. She is so sincere that she will
reply to a certainty."
"Yes, but it is necessary that I should believe her."
"If you knew a little of human nature, you ought to believe her."
"In any case, I would fear a misunderstanding; for if she answered me
in Polish, she could make a mistake, and if in English, I might not
understand her perfectly."
"She speaks better Polish than you do English."
"I admit that this astonishes me. Whence?"
"Haven't I told you," answered Gronski, with some impatience, "that she
was taught from childhood, because her father was an Englishman who had
great sympathy for the Poles?"
"De gustibus non est disputandem," answered Dolhanski.
And afterwards he again began to speak of the deceased and of the old
notary, mimicking the movements of his toothless jaws and the fury of
his look; and finally he announced that if something was not "sliced
off" for him he would either shoot himself upon Pani Otocka's threshold
or else would drive over to Gorek and offer himself for the hand of
Panna Wlocek.
But Gronski was buried in thought about something else during the time
of this idle talk, while Ladislaus heard him distractedly as his
attention was attracted by the considerable number of peasant carts
which they were continually passing by. Supposing that he had forgotten
some market-day in the city, he turned to his coachman.
"Andrew," he asked, "why are there so many carts on the road to the
city?"
"Ah, those, please your honor, are Rzeslewo peasants."
"Rzeslewo? What have they to do there?"
"Ah! please your honor, on account of the will of the deceased Pan
Zarnowski; it is to give them Rzeslewo."
Krzycki turned to Gronski.
"I heard," he said, "that somebody circulated among them such a story,
but did not think that they would believe it."
And afterwards again to the coachman:
"Who told them that?"
The old driver hesitated somewhat in his reply:
"The people gossip that it was the Tutor."
Ladislaus began to laugh.
"Oh, stupid peasants!" he said. "Why, he never in his life saw Pan
Zarnowski. How would he know about the will?"
But after a moment of meditation he said, partly to his companions and
partly to himself:
"Everything must have some object, so if Laskowicz did that, let some
one explain to me why he did it."
"Do you suspect him of it?" asked Gronski.
"I do not know, for heretofore I had assumed that one could be a
socialist and keep his wits in order."
"Ah, so he is a bird of that nest? Tell me how long has he been with
you and what manner of a man is he?"
"He has been with us half a year. We needed an instructor for Stas and
some one recommended him to us. We were informed that he would have to
leave Warsaw for a certain time to elude the police and, in fact, for
that reason received him more eagerly, thinking that some patriotic
matter was involved. Later, when it appeared that he was of an entirely
different calibre, mother would not permit his dismissal in hope that
she might convert him. At the beginning she had lengthy heart-to-heart
talks with him and requested me to be friendly with him. We treated him
as a member of the family, but the result has been such that he hates
us, not only as people belonging to a sphere which he envies, but also,
as it seems, individually."
"It is evident," said Dolhanski, "he holds it evil of you that you are
not such as he imagined you would be; neither so wicked nor so stupid.
And you may rest assured that he will never forgive that in you."
"That may be so. In any case, he will shortly despise us from a
distance, for after a month we part. I understand that one can and
ought to tolerate all convictions, but there is something in him,
besides his principles and hatreds, which is so conflicting with all
our customs, and something so strange that we have had enough of him."
"My Laudie," answered Dolhanski, "do not necessarily apply this to
yourself, for I speak generally, but since you have mentioned
toleration, I will tell you that in my opinion toleration in Poland was
and is nothing else than downright stupidity, and monumental stupidity
at that."
"In certain respects Dolhanski is right," answered Gronski. "It may be
that in the course of our history we tolerated various ideas and
elements not only through magnanimous forbearance, but also because in
our indolence we did not care to contend with them."
To this Ladislaus, who did not like to engage in general argumentation,
said:
"That is all right, but all that does not explain why Laskowicz should
spread among the peasants the news that Uncle Zarnowski devised
Rzeslewo to them."
"There is, as yet, no certainty that he did," answered Gronski. "We
will very soon learn the truth at the notary's."