"Then I tender my best wishes from the whole heart. When is the wedding?"
"Very soon, on account of the weather, famine, fire, and war, also similar exceptional circ.u.mstances. In a week. Without publication of the banns, on an _indult_. After the wedding, the same night a trip abroad."
"And you say all this seriously?"
"With the greatest seriousness in the world. Observe the exquisite consequences."
"Here Dolhanski spread out his fingers and began to enumerate:"
"Primo, my credit is resurrected, as a Hindoo fakir, who, buried in the ground for a whole month, awakes after exhumation to a new life; secundo: Gorek is without a copper coin of indebtedness and without society; tertio: my marriage settlement surpa.s.ses my expectations; quarto: my fiancee from good luck has grown so beautiful that you would not recognize her."
"What are you saying?" cried Ladislaus, ingenuously.
XIII
Promptly at four, Ladislaus appeared at Miss Anney"s. She received him feelingly and for a greeting offered both hands which he began to press alternately to his lips and his forehead. Afterwards they sat beside each other and for a long time heard only the quickened beating of their own hearts and the faint sounds of the clock on the writing-desk.
They reciprocally glanced at each other but neither was able to say the first word. After a while life could glow for them like a new dawn, glistening with joy and happiness, but, for the time being, it was heavy, embarra.s.sing, the more embarra.s.sing the longer the silence continued.
Finally, Ladislaus from a feeling, that, if he kept silent much longer, he would appear ridiculous, mustered enough courage and spoke in a broken voice, whose sounds appeared strange to him!
"From this morning I have a little hope--and nevertheless my heart beats as if I did not have any--I could not say a single word until I caught my breath--but that is nothing strange as my whole life is concerned.--Lady, you long ago, of course, surmised how deeply--how with my whole soul I love you,--you knew this long ago--is it not so?"
Here he again inhaled the air, took a deep breath, and continued:
"To-day in the church I said to myself this: "If she will hear me, if she does not spurn me, if she consents to be my own for my whole life--my wife--then I vow solemnly to G.o.d before this altar that I will love and honor her; that I will never wrong her and will give her all the happiness which is in my power." And I swear to you that this is the truth--It only depends upon you, lady, that it shall be so--upon your consent--upon your faith in me."
Saying this, he again raised Miss Anney"s hands to his lips and imprinted upon them a long imploring kiss and she leaned towards him so that her hair lightly brushed his forehead, and quietly replied:
"I consent and believe with my whole soul--but this does not depend upon me alone."
"Only upon you, lady," exclaimed Ladislaus.
And believing that Miss Anney had his mother in mind, he began to say with a brightened face and deep joy in his voice:
"My mother desires my happiness above all things and I a.s.sure you that she will come here with me to beg of you; and with me she will thank you for this great, this ineffable boon, and in the meantime I on my knees thank--"
He wanted to drop on his knees before her and embrace her limbs with his arms, but she began to restrain him and say with feverish haste:
"No, no. Do not kneel, sir,--you must first hear me. I consent, but I must confess things upon which everything depends. Please calm yourself."
Ladislaus rose, again sat beside her and said, with anxious surprise:
"I listen, my dearest lady."
"And I must compose myself a little," replied Miss Anney.
After which she rose, and approaching the window, pressed her forehead against the pane.
For some time silence again ensued.
"What is it?" spoke out Krzycki.
Miss Anney withdrew her forehead from the pane. Her countenance was calmer, but her eyes were dimmed as if with tears. Approaching the table, she sat down opposite to Ladislaus.
"Before I relate what it is now necessary for me to state," she said, "I have a great favor to ask of you. And if you--love me truly--then you will not refuse--"
"Lady, if you demanded my life, I would not refuse it. I pledge you my word," he exclaimed.
"Very well. Give me your word. Then I will be certain."
"I pledge it in advance and swear upon our future happiness that I will comply with your every wish."
"Very well," repeated Miss Anney. "Then I first beg of you, by all you hold most precious, not to feel at all bound by anything you have said to me just now."
"I not feel bound? In what way? Of course, it may not be binding upon you, lady--but on me--"
"Well, then, I release you from all obligations and consider that nothing has been said. You promised me that you would not refuse me anything, but this is not all."
"Not all?"
"No, I am anxious that after what I shall tell you, you shall not give me any answer--and for a whole week shall not return to me and shall not try to see me."
"But in the name of G.o.d, what is it?" cried Ladislaus; "why should I suffer a week of torments? What does this mean?"
"And for me it also will be a torment," she answered in a soft voice.
"But it is necessary, it is imperative. You will have to explain everything to yourself; weigh everything, unravel and decide everything--and form a resolution--afterwards you may return or may not return--and a week for all that will be rather too little."
And perceiving the agitation on Ladislaus" face, she hurriedly added, as if alarmed:
"Sir, you promised--you pledged me your word!"
Ladislaus drew his hand across the hair of his head; after which he began to rub his forehead with his palm.
"I gave the word," he said at last, "because you requested it, lady--but why?"
And Miss Anney turned pale to the eyes; for a while her lips quivered as though she struggled vainly to draw the words from her bosom, and only after an interval did she reply:
"Because--atone time I--did not bear the name of Anney."
"You did not bear the name of Anney?"
"I--am--Hanka Skibianka."
Ladislaus rose, staggered like a drunken man, and began to stare at her with a bewildered look.
And she added in almost a whisper: