"But knowest thou that love is worse than a wolf, for a man may kill a wolf, but to kill love is beyond him."
"I know, but that again is another question."
"But if there be wit enough, a question is nothing."
"In that case may G.o.d give us wit."
Panna Anulka hid her laughter behind her palm; after her laughed Stanislav, and then the Bukoyemskis. Further word-play was stopped by a servant announcing the supper.
Pan Serafin gave his arm to Pani Vinnitski; after them went Pan Gideon; Stanislav conducted Panna Anulka.
"A dispute with Pan Bukoyemski is difficult," said the young lady, made gladsome.
"For his reasons are like wilful horses, each goes its own way; but he has told two truths which are hard of denial."
"What is the first one?"
"That no man knows what will meet him on the morrow, just as yesterday I did not know, for example, that to-day I should see you."
"And the other?"
"That a man can kill a wolf, but to kill love is beyond him. This also is a great truth."
Stanislav sighed; the young lady lowered her shady eyelashes and was silent. Only after a while, when they were sitting at the table, did she say to him,--
"But you will come, gentlemen, soon to my guardian"s, so that he may show you some grat.i.tude for saving us and for your hospitality also?"
The gloomy feelings of Pan Gideon brightened notably at supper, and when the host in splendid phrases proposed first the health of the ladies and that of the honored guest afterward, the old n.o.ble answered very cordially, thanking for the rescue from difficult straits, and giving a.s.surance of never-ending grat.i.tude.
After that they conversed of public questions, of the king, of the Diet which was to meet the May following of the war with which the Turkish Sultan was threatening the German Empire, and for which that Knight of Malta, Pan Lyubomirski, was bringing in volunteers.
The four brothers listened with no slight curiosity, because every Pole was received with open arms among Germans; since the Turks despised German cavalry, while Polish hors.e.m.e.n roused proper terror.
Pan Gideon blamed Lyubomirski"s pride somewhat, since he spoke of German counts thuswise: "Ten of them could find place in one glove of mine;" still, he praised the man"s knightliness, boundless daring, and great skill in warfare.
On hearing this, Lukash Bukoyemski declared for himself and his brothers that in spring they would hasten to Lyubomirski, but while the frost raged they would kill wolves, and avenge the young lady, as behooved them.
"For, though we are not to wonder at the wolves," said Mateush, "when one thinks that such a pure dove might have been turned into wolf"s meat the heart flies to the throat from pure anger, and at the same time it is hard to keep tears down. What a pity that wolf skins are so low-priced,--the Jews give barely one thaler for three of them!--but it is hard to keep our tears down, and even better to give way to them, for whoso could not compa.s.sionate innocence and virtue would be a savage, whom no man should name as a knight and a n.o.ble."
In fact, he gave way to his tears then, as did his three brothers; though wolves in the worst case could threaten only the life, not the virtue of the lady, still the eloquence of Lukash so moved his three brothers that their hearts became soft as warmed wax while they listened. They wished to shoot in the air from their pistols in honor of the young lady; but the host opposed, saying that he had a sick forester in the mansion, a man of great merit, who needed silence.
Pan Gideon, who supposed this to be some reduced relative of Pan Serafin, or in the worst case a village n.o.ble, inquired touching him, through politeness; but on learning that he was a serving-man and a peasant he shrugged his shoulders and looked with displeased and wondering eyes at Pan Serafin.
"Oh yes!" said he. "I forgot what people say of your marvellous kindness."
"G.o.d grant," answered Pan Serafin, "that they say nothing worse of me.
I have to thank this man for much; and may every one meet such a person, for he knows herbs very thoroughly and can give aid in every illness."
"I wonder, since he cures others so ably, that he has not cured himself thus far. Send him my relative, Pani Vinnitski,--she knows many simples, and presses them on people; but meanwhile permit us to think of retiring, for the road has fatigued me most cruelly, and the wine has touched me also a trifle, just as it has the Bukoyemskis."
In fact, the heads of the Bukoyemskis were steaming, while the eyes of those brothers were mist-covered and tender; so when Pan Stanislav conducted them to another building, where they were to pa.s.s the night together, they followed him with most uncertain tread on frozen snow, which squeaked under them. They wondered why the moon, instead of shining in the heavens, was perched on the roof of a barn and was smiling.
But Panna Anulka had dropped into their hearts so profoundly that they wished to speak more of her.
Pan Stanislav, who felt no great wish for sleep, directed to bring a thick-bellied bottle; then they sat near the broad chimney, and, by the bright light of the torch, drank in silence at first, listening only to the crickets in the chamber. At last Mateush filled his breast well with air and blew with such force at the chimney that the flame bent before him.
"O Jesus! My dear brothers," cried he, "weep, for a sad fate has met me."
"What fate? Speak, do not hide thy condition!"
"It is this. I am so in love that the knees are weakening under me!"
"And I? Dost think that I am not in love?" shouted Marek.
"And I?" screamed out Lukash.
"And I," ended Yan.
Mateush wanted to give them an answer of some kind, but could not at first, for a hiccough had seized him. He only stared with great wonderment, and looked as if he saw them for the first time in life at that moment. Then rage was depicted on his countenance.
"How is this, O sons of a such a one?" cried he, "ye wish to block the road to your eldest brother, and deprive him of happiness?"
"O indeed!" answered Marek, "what does this mean? Is Panna Anulka an entail of some kind, that only the eldest brother can get her? We are sons of one father and mother, so if thou call us sons of a such a one, thou art blaming thy father and mother. Each man is free to love as he chooses."
"Free, but woe to you, for ye are all bound to me in obedience."
"Must we all our lives serve a horseskull? Hei?"
"O pagan, thou art barking like a dog!"
"Thou art thyself doing that. Jacob was younger than Esau, and Joseph was younger than all his brothers, so thou art blaming the Scriptures, and barking against true religion."
Pushed to the wall by these arguments, Mateush could not find an answer with promptness, and when Yan made some remark touching Cain, the first brother, he lost his head utterly. Anger rose in him higher and higher, till at last he began with his right hand to search for the sabre which he had not there with him. It is unknown to what it would have come had not Yan, who for some time had been pressing a finger to his forehead, as if wrestling with an idea, cried out in a great voice, and suddenly,--
"I am the youngest brother, I am Joseph, so Panna Anulka is for me.
undisputedly."
The others turned to him straightway. From their eyes were shooting fire sparks, in their faces was indignation.
"What? For thee? For thee! thou goose egg! thou straw scarecrow, thou horse strangler, thou dry slipper--thou drunkard! For thee?"
"Shut thy mouth, it is written in the Scriptures."
"What Scriptures, thou dunce?"
"All the same--but it is there. Ye are drunk, not I."
But at this moment Pan Stanislav happened in among them.