[Footnote 43: The "_y_" at the end of Hungarian personal names has much the same value as the French _de_ or the German _von_--TR.]
The matter now really began to amuse me. I could imagine to myself the Hogarthian group when the trio of ladies began spelling out syllable by syllable the letter that had been written on a maize-leaf.
"Well! and what answer did you get?"
"The answer you may easily have antic.i.p.ated. My mother replied that she repudiated me entirely, that I should not get a farthing from her, and that I was never again to presume to show my face in a family which I had so utterly disgraced."
"And did Peter know all about this?"
"I was obliged to tell him, for my mother had nearly frightened to death the bearer of my letter, our little serving maid. She told her that if she ever dared to come to town again she would have her seized and tied to the pillory (though there wasn"t one), and well flogged into the bargain; so that neither by cuffs nor entreaties was the wench to be persuaded to go to town again. She said as much to Peter. She said she would rather lose her place. And yet she ought to have gone every market-day to the town with cheese and b.u.t.ter, for these wares were Peter"s chief means of livelihood. What was I to do now? I did this. I resolved to take the b.u.t.ter and cheese to market myself."
"You? But how?"
"Not in a gla.s.s carriage, you may be sure. The market is a good two hours" journey from our hut, and the direction is marked by the church tower. The peasant women, when they pack with wares the baskets which they put on their heads, make, first of all, a sort of wreath of rags, which they place below the baskets to lighten the pressure and maintain the equilibrium."
"And you did the same?"
"Naturally! It is no greater hardship for me, surely, than for the other poor girls who do it. And remember, besides, that this marketing is just as great an amus.e.m.e.nt to the peasant women as a promenade concert is to fine ladies. There was only one little nuisance connected with it. Just at this time all the irrigation waters had overflowed, and all the fields and meadows between our hut and the market town were turned into a lake, through which we had to wade."
"What! you waded through the flooded fields?"
"Oh, the water did not really come above my knees. It was only here and there, by the side of the streams, that we had to truss up our petticoats pretty high, and then we took off our boots and carried them tied on to the handles of our baskets. That is how all the women go."
"And you picked your way along like that too?"
"Again and again! I might, indeed, have gone along by the d.y.k.es, but then I should have had to turn into the village and make a circuit of four miles with the mud up to my knees. Along the even marshes, on the other hand, it is pleasant going, the soft soil does not hurt your heels, and there are no leeches."
"But did no one see you?"
"What did I care? I quite enjoyed my aquatic promenade. It was every bit as good as bathing at Trouville, and there I had by no means so ample a toilet. On arriving in town, I at once readjusted my clothes, put on my boots, and went to sell b.u.t.ter and cheese right in front of my mother"s house. It was really a capital position that I chose; a corner-house between two thoroughfares, opening out upon the market-place."
"And n.o.body recognised you?"
"Why shouldn"t they? Every one recognised me, even the money-collector who hires out the standing-rooms. He allowed me my standing-room gratis, because I "belonged to the place." I was surrounded by quite a crowd of my former cavaliers, who bought up all my b.u.t.ter, and I sold my cheese by the ounce, at fancy prices; there was quite a run upon it. Never had Peter Gyuricza seen so much money as I brought home to him from the sale of his b.u.t.ter and cheese."
"And your worthy mother?"
"Alas! all that the poor thing could do was to pull down all the blinds in broad daylight. I, however, purchased with the proceeds of the b.u.t.ter and cheese as much salt and tobacco as we required, packed them all up in the basket, and, placing it on my head, returned through the floods the same way by which I came."
"And did you do this often?"
"Every market day. Sometimes it was rainy. Then the peasant woman is wont to throw her upper garment over her head, that is her umbrella. I had to get accustomed to that too. Once, a couple of my former young gentlemen acquaintances took it into their heads to play me a practical joke. They paddled a canoe out of the Danube into the submerged plain, and when I began my wading tour they paddled after me. That did _me_ no harm, but it turned out badly for them, for the peasant girls who went with me charged upon them like the host of Sisera, wrested the paddles from their hands, and left them rocking helplessly to and fro in the midst of the waters."
"But hasn"t the water all dried up now?" I asked impatiently.
"Oh, how he snaps at me! Of course! Now we can go dry-shod. Only when we come to a ditch do we take off our shoes. But, dear heart! how I do go on gabbling without ever coming to the point. I must explain why I have come all the way hither to you, my dear Mr. Advocate. As I will not appear before the priest to further the reconciliation project, and my husband (my first, I mean) will do so neither, I must, of course, appear before the judge! and as, moreover, my mother must be admonished to hand over my little property, if you would take my case up for me I should be exceedingly obliged to you."
I told her that I did not practise as an advocate, and that I had no experience whatever of divorce proceedings, not having been taught the subject in the schools.
Then she began to speak in a very solemn voice. She said she had never expected me to take up her case, but had sought me out because she had been informed that the advocates with whom I had served my articles were very eminent pract.i.tioners; she would like to entrust her double suit to them. As, however, she feared that they would neither receive her nor believe her if she appeared before them in her present costume, she earnestly begged that I would give her a letter of introduction to the firm of Molnar & Verchovszky for friendship"s sake--or for any other price.
"Well, I can do that for you--for nothing."
To write this letter I had to sit down at my writing-table.
"May I peep and see what you write about me?"
"If you like."
I could not take offence at her curiosity.
"I"ll help you!" said she, with nave archness, and went and stood behind my back.
I must say that she had a very odd notion of helping me. She leant right over me so that I could feel her burning breath on my face, and the throbbing of her heart against my shoulder. I spoiled the first sheet of paper by writing last year"s date at the top of it. Then I could not call to mind the name of my client, and I thought one thing and wrote another. Add to that that I made a mess of the simplest sentences, and wrote in a style worthy of a pedantic grammarian. Finally I got hopelessly involved in the maze of a long-winded phrase which I began but could not finish. That"s what happens to a man when he has to listen to the beating of two hearts!
It was on this self-same table that the picture stood which I have already mentioned. I had no time to conceal it in my drawer. And why should I have tried to hide it? Was I bound to make a mystery of it before her?
Right opposite to my writing-table was a mirror on the wall. On one occasion, when I was pursuing an elusive word, I raised my head from my writing-desk and saw in the mirror the figure of the woman who was standing behind my back. Oh, what a face was that! She was not looking into my letter, but at the portrait. The eyes were turned sideways, so that the upper parts of the whites were visible; the lips were drawn aside, and the teeth clenched.
I saw this from the mirror. And this mirror, too had the property of making things look green. Viewed in this magic light, the fair lady standing behind me appeared like the Iblis of the _Thousand-and-one Nights_, who sucks the blood of her lovers and leads the dances of the dead.
I finished the letter to my old chiefs.
Then I dried it with a piece of blotting-paper. Sand I have always hated. I also felt, in this respect, like Stephen Szechenyi,[44] who, whenever he received a sanded-letter, used to give it first of all to his lackey to be taken out in the hall and dusted. Before enclosing the letter, however, I turned round and handed it to her.
[Footnote 44: Count Stephen Szechenyi, "the greatest of the Magyars,"
was born in 1791. He brilliantly distinguished himself at the battle of Leipsic, and at Tolentino, in 1815, at the head of his Hussars, annihilated Murat"s cavalry. After the war, he devoted himself to domestic politics with a tact, courage, and n.o.ble liberality which speedily made him the most popular man in Hungary. The Hungarian Academy and the Hungarian National Theatre were founded at his initiative and mainly at his expense. The breach with Austria in 1848 so preyed upon his mind that he went mad, and was confined in an asylum, where he destroyed himself in 1860.--TR.]
"Would you read it, please?"
The menacing spectre was no longer there. Iblis had changed into a smiling young bride.
"And how do you know that I haven"t read the letter?" she asked, in her astonishment.
"My little finger whispered it to me!"
At this she burst out laughing, and pushed the letter away.
"I don"t mean to read it! I know that you have written no end of good things about me."
I folded up my letter, sealed it and wrote the address--"Joseph Molnar and Alexander Verchovszky, Advocates." Then I handed it to her.
Still she kept standing there in front of my writing-table, twirling the letter round and round in her hands, and gazing continually at the portrait. Her face had become quite solemn. In her deeply downcast eyes there was a suspicious brightness testifying to restrained tear-drops.
She heaved a deep sigh.
"But this is mere folly!" She thrust my letter beneath her bodice, and in a voice of real warmth and sincerity, she stammered: "I thank you most kindly." Then she added, in a voice half grave, half gay: "But come now! You won"t write my story in the newspapers, will you?"