They will make me slam the door some day.
What a comedy! Since I have won reputation and money, Suslovski, in
spite of my forethought, treats me simply with contempt; his wife, all
Kazia's relatives, male and female, meet me frigidly.
On the first evening Suslovski announces that if I suppose that my new
position has influenced their action, or if I suppose--which for that
matter is evident in me--that I am doing them a favor, I am mistaken.
Though ready to sacrifice much for the happiness of their child, still
even that only child cannot ask them to sacrifice their human dignity.
The mother adds, that, in case of need, the child will know where to
seek refuge. The honest Kazia defends me at moments very angrily; but
they are in wait for every word of mine.
Barely do I open my mouth when Suslovski bites his lips, looks at his
wife and nods, as if to say, "I knew that it would come to this." Such a
saw have they fixed for me from morning till evening.
And to think that all this is hypocrisy, that its special service is to
keep me in their net, that at the bottom of the question they are after
my fifteen thousand francs, and that they are as anxious for them as I
am, though our motives are different.
It is time to finish.
They have brought me to this that I seem to myself to have committed
really some scoundrelism in getting the gold medal and the fifteen
thousand francs for my picture.