Self-control in Pan Gideon"s mansion was habitual with Yatsek, still, he could hardly sit to the end of the supper as he heard the words of the lady and Pan Stanislav. He saw, unhappy victim, that the other man pleased her, for he was in fact an adroit and agreeable young fellow, and far from being stupid. The talk at table turned always on the levies. Stanislav, learning from Pan Grothus that perhaps the levies would be made under him in those regions, turned to the lady on a sudden, and asked,--
"What regiment do you prefer?"
"The hussars," said she, looking at his shoulders.
"Because of the wings?"
"Yes. Once I saw hussars and thought them a heavenly army. I dreamt of them afterward two nights in succession."
"I know not whether I shall dream when a hussar, but I know that I shall dream of you earlier, and of wings also."
"Why is that?"
"I should dream of a real angel."
Panna Anulka dropped her eyes till a shade fell on her rosy cheeks from her eyelids.
"Be a hussar," said she, after an interval.
Yatsek gritted his teeth, drew his palm over his moistened forehead, and during the supper he did not get word or look from the lady. Only when they had risen from the table did a sweet, beloved voice sound at his ear.
"But will you go to this war with the others?"
"To die! to die!" answered Yatsek.
And in that answer there was such a genuine, true groan of anguish that the voice was heard again, as if in sympathy,--
"Why sadden us?"
"No one will weep for me."
"How know you that?" said the voice now a third time.
Then she slipped away to the other guests as swiftly as a dream vision, and bloomed, like a rose, at the other end of the drawing-room.
Meanwhile, the two elder men sat after the meal over goblets of mead, and when they had discussed public questions sufficiently they began to chat about private ones. Pan Grothus followed Panna Anulka with tender eyes for a time, and then said to Pan Gideon,--
"That is a brilliant spot over there. Just look at those young people who are flying like moths round a candle. But that is no wonder, for were we not in years we too should be flying."
Pan Gideon waved his hand in displeasure.
"Swarms they are,--rustics, homespuns, nothing better."
"How so? Tachevski is not a homespun."
"No, but he is poor. The Bukoyemskis are not homespuns; they even declare that they are kinsmen of Saint Peter, which may help them in heaven, but on earth they are nothing but foresters in the king"s wilderness."
Pan Grothus wondered at the relationship of the Bukoyemskis no less than had Pan Gideon when he heard of it the first time, so he fell to inquiring in detail, till at last he laughed heartily, and added,--
"Saint Peter was a great apostle, and I have no wish to detract from his honor; all the more, since feeling old, I shall soon need his influence. But between you and me, there is not much in this kinship to boast of--no, he was merely a fisherman. If you speak of Joseph, who came from King David,--well, you may talk to me."
"I say only that there is no one here fit for the girl, either among those whom you see now under my roof, or in the whole neighborhood."
"But he who is sitting near Pani Vinnitski seems a nice gentleman."
"Tsyprianovitch? Yes, he is; but Armenian by origin and of a family n.o.ble only three generations."
"Then why invite them? Cupid is traitorous, and before there is time to turn once the pudding may be cooked for you."
Pan Gideon, who, in presenting the young men had stated how much he owed them, explained now in detail about the wolves and the a.s.sistance, because of which he was forced to invite the young rescuers to his mansion through grat.i.tude simply.
"True, true," said Pan Grothus, "but in his own way Amor may cook the pudding before you have noticed it. This girl"s blood is not water."
"Ai! she is a slippery weasel," said Pan Gideon. "She can and will bite, but she will twist out besides from between a man"s fingers, and no common person could catch her. Great blood has this inborn quality that it yields not, but rules and regulates. I am not of those who are led by the nose very easily, still, I yield to her often. It is true, that I owe much to the Sieninskis, but even if I did not there would be only slight difference. When she stands before me and puts a tress from one shoulder to the other, inclines her head to me, and glances, she gets what she wishes most frequently. And more than once do I think, what a blessing of G.o.d, what an honor, that the last child, the last heiress of such a famed family, is under my roof tree. Of course you know of the Sieninskis--once all Podolia was theirs. In truth, the Sobieskis, the Daniloviches, the Jolkevskis grew great through them. It is the duty of His Grace the King to remember this, all the more since now almost nothing remains of those great possessions; and the girl, if she has any property, will have only that which remains after me to her."
"But what will your relatives say in this matter?"
"There are only distant Pangovskis, who will not prove kinship. But often my peace is destroyed by the thought that after me may come quarrels, with lawsuits and wrangling, as is common in this country.
The relatives of my late wife are for me the great question. From my wife comes a part of my property, namely: the lands with this mansion."
"I shall not appear with a lawsuit," said Pan Grothus, "but I would not guarantee as to others."
"That is it! That is it! I have been thinking of late to visit Warsaw and beg the king to be a guardian to this orphan, but his head is full now of other questions."
"If you had a son it would be a simple matter to give the girl to him."
Pan Gideon gazed at the starosta with a look so full of pain that the other stopped speaking. Both men were silent for a long time, till Pan Gideon said with emotion,--
"To you I might say, my lord brother, with Virgil, _infandum jubes renovare dolorem_ (thou commandest me to call up unspeakable sorrow).
That marriage would be simple--and I will tell you that had it not been for this simple method I should have died long ago perhaps. My son while in childhood was stolen by the Tartars. People have returned more than once from captivity among pagans when the memory of them had perished. Whole years have I looked for a miracle--whole years have I lived in the hope of it. To-day even, when I drink something I think to myself we, perhaps now! G.o.d is greater than human imagining. But those moments of hope are very shortlived, while the pain is enduring and daily. No! Why deceive myself? My blood will not be mingled with that of the Sieninskis, and, if relatives rend what I have into fragments, this last child of the family to which I owe everything, will be without bread to nourish her."
Both drank in silence again. Pan Grothus was thinking how to milden the pain which he had roused in Pan Gideon unwittingly, and how to console the man in suffering. At last an idea occurred to him which he considered very happy. "Ai!" exclaimed he, "there is a way to do everything, and you, my lord brother, can secure bread for the girl without trouble."
"How?" asked Pan Gideon, with a certain disquiet.
"Does it not happen often that old men take as wives even girls not full grown yet? An example in history is Konietspolski the grand hetman, who married a green girl, though he was older than you are. It is true also, that, having taken too many youth-giving medicines, he died the first night after marriage, but neither Pan Makovski, pocillator of Radom, nor Pan Rudnitski lost their lives, though both had pa.s.sed seventy. Besides, you are st.u.r.dy. Should the Lord again bless you, well, so much the better; if not, you would leave in sufficiency and quiet the young widow, who might choose then the husband that pleased her."
Whether such an idea had ever come to Pan Gideon we may not determine; it suffices, that, after these words of Pan Grothus, he was greatly confused, and, with a hand trembling somewhat, poured mead to the starosta till it flowed over the goblet, and the generous liquor dropped down to the floor after pa.s.sing the table.
"Let us drink to the success of Christian arms!" said he.
"That in its time," said Pan Grothus, following the course of his own thoughts still further; "and dwell in your own way on what I have said to you, for I have struck, as I think, the true point of the question."
"But why? What reason is there? Drink some more--"
Further words were interrupted by the movement of chairs at the larger table. Pani Vinnitski and Panna Anulka wished to retire to their chamber. The voice of the young lady, as resonant as a bell made of silver, repeated: "Good-night, good-night;" then she courtesied prettily to Pan Grothus, kissed the hand of Pan Gideon, touched his shoulder with her nose and her forehead cat fashion, and vanished. Pan Stanislav, the Bukoyemskis, and Yatsek went out soon after the ladies.
The two older men only remained in the dining-room and conversed long in it, for Pan Gideon commanded to bring still better mead in another decanter.