The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [156]
‘But…but…’ the lawyer exclaimed, as he accompanied Wokulski out, ‘our Counts are forming a partnership, except that they are decreasing their contributions and demanding a very detailed account of the transaction.’
‘They are quite right.’
‘Count Liciński is proving particularly shrewd. I can’t think what has come over him…’
‘He is providing money, so he is cautious. As long as he was only giving his word, he could afford to be rash.’
‘Not at all,’ the lawyer interposed, ‘there’s more to it than that,
and I am investigating. Someone is interfering…’
‘Not with you, but with me,’ Wokulski smiled, ‘yet I don’t care, and would not mind at all if these gentlemen didn’t join our partnership.’
He bade farewell to the lawyer once more and hurried to the store. There he found several important matters which detained him longer than he expected. He was not in the Łazienki park until one-thirty.
The harsh chill of the park excited rather than calmed him. He hurried so that sometimes he wondered whether he was attracting the attention of passers-by. Then he slowed down and felt that his chest would burst with impatience: ‘Surely I won’t meet them now,’ he repeated desperately.
Just by the lake, he caught sight of Izabela’s ash-coloured wrap against a background of green shrubs. She was standing on the bank with the Countess and her father, throwing crumbs to the swans, one of which had even waddled out of the water and stood at Izabela’s feet.
Tomasz was first to notice him: ‘What a fortunate coincidence,’ he exclaimed to Wokulski, ‘you in the Łazienki at this time of day!’
Wokulski bowed to the ladies, noticing the blush on Izabela’s face with a sensation of delighted surprise: ‘I come here whenever I am overworked…which is quite often.’
‘Take care of yourself, Mr Wokulski,’ Tomasz warned, shaking a finger at him gravely, ‘and apropos,’ he added in an undertone, ‘just think—Baroness Krzeszowska wants to give me seventy thousand for my house. I shall certainly get a hundred thousand, perhaps a hundred and ten thousand. Thank goodness for auction sales.’
‘I see you so rarely, Mr Wokulski,’ the Countess interposed, ‘that I must get down to business immediately.’
‘I am at your service, madam.’
‘My dear sir,’ she exclaimed, pressing her hands together with mock humility, ‘I entreat you for a roll of calico for my orphans. Just see how I have learned to beg for charity.’
‘Will you deign to accept two rolls?’
‘Only if one is of thick linen…’
‘Aunt, you are going too far,’ Izabela interrupted with a smile, ‘if you do not want to lose your entire fortune,’ she added to Wokulski, ‘you had better run away. I’ll take you in the direction of the Orangery, and the others can rest here awhile…’
‘Bela, aren’t you afraid?…’ her aunt exclaimed.
‘Surely you don’t suppose, aunt, that anything bad can happen to me in the company of Mr Wokulski?’
The blood ran to Wokulski’s head; an imperceptible smile flitted across the Countess’s lips.
It was one of those moments when Nature puts a brake on her immense powers, and suspends her eternal labours to emphasise the happiness of small and insignificant beings. The breeze was scarcely blowing, and then only to cool the fledgelings in their nests and help insects winging their way to nuptial festivities. The leaves on the trees stirred so gently that it was as if they were moved not by a material breath, but by the shifting sun-beams. Here and there, in the moisture-drenched undergrowth, colourful dew drops shimmered like the particles of a rainbow from Heaven. Thus everything was appropriate: the sun and trees, the light and shade, the swans on the lake, the swarms of mosquitoes hovering over the swans, even the glittering waves on the blue water. At this moment it seemed to Wokulski that time itself had quit the earth, leaving behind only a few white streaks in the sky—and that from now on nothing would change: everything would remain the same forever and ever—he and Izabela would walk forever through radiant meadows, both surrounded by green clouds of trees, in which the curious eyes of