The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [178]
‘You say that because you don’t know her,’ Wokulski interrupted stormily.
‘Every woman is exceptional, until she breaks your heart. It’s true I don’t know her, but I know others. To gain a great victory over a woman one must be both ruthless and shameless: two virtues you haven’t got. That is why I am warning you — do not risk much, for you will be outdistanced, if you haven’t been already. I have never spoken to you of such things before, have I? I don’t even look like a philosopher. … But I feel you are threatened by danger, so I repeat — beware! Do not engage your heart in a shameful game, for with her at your side you will be derided by every Tom, Dick and Harry. And I must tell you that when that happens a man feels such bitterness that … better not live to see it, God knows!’
Wokulski, on the settee, clenched his fist but kept silent. At this moment there was a knock on the door and Lisiecki appeared: ‘Mr Łęcki to see you. Shall I bring him in here?’
‘Ask him to step in,’ Wokulski replied, hastily buttoning his waistcoat and jacket.
Rzecki got up, shook his head mournfully and left the room. ‘I thought things were bad,’ he muttered in the passage, ‘but never that they were this bad …’
Hardly had Wokulski collected himself than Mr Łęcki entered, followed by the door-man. Mr Łęcki had bloodshot eyes and livid patches on his cheeks. He threw himself into an armchair, leaned back and breathed heavily. The door-man lingered on the threshold with an embarrassed expression and waited for orders, twiddling with the metal buttons on his livery.
‘Forgive me, Stanisław, but … a little water and some lemon juice, if you please …’ Tomasz whispered.
‘Soda water, lemon and sugar. Be quick!’ said Wokulski to the door-man. The latter went out, catching his great buttons on the door-handle.
‘It’s nothing,’ said Tomasz with a smile, ‘I have a short neck, then the heat and vexation … I’ll rest a moment …’
Concerned, Wokulski took off his tie for him and undid his collar. Then he soaked a towel in eau de cologne which he found in Rzecki’s desk and bathed the sick man’s neck, face and temples with filial concern. Tomasz pressed his hand: ‘I am better … Thank you,’ and he added in an undertone, ‘I like you as a ministering angel. Bela couldn’t have done it more delicately … Well, she was born to be served …’
The door-man brought a syphon and lemons. Wokulski made lemonade and gave it to Tomasz, from whose face the livid stains were gradually disappearing.
‘Go to my house,’ said Wokulski to the door-man, ‘and tell them to harness the horses. Bring the carriage around to the shop.’
‘Good of you … good of you …’ said Tomasz, pressing his hand and looking gratefully at him with bloodshot eyes, ‘I am not used to so much trouble being taken, for Bela knows nothing of such things …’
Izabela’s inability to look after sick people struck Wokulski disagreeably. But only for a moment.
Tomasz slowly regained strength. The copious sweat left his forehead, his voice grew stronger and only the network of little veins in his eyes bore witness to the attack. He even walked about the room, stretched and began: ‘Oh, you can have no idea, Stanisław, how vexed I was today. Will you believe that my house was sold for ninety thousand?’
Wokulski flinched.
‘I was positive,’ said Mr Łęcki, ‘that I’d get at least a hundred and ten thousand. In the court I heard people saying the property was worth a hundred and twenty … But what of it? A Jew had set his heart on buying it, a miserable usurer, that Szlangbaum … He came to terms with his competitors and who knows but with my lawyer too, and I lost twenty or thirty thousand.’
Now Wokulski looked apoplectic, but he said nothing.
‘I’d reckoned,’ went on Mr Łęcki, ‘that on the fifty thousand you’d pay me some ten thousand a year. Household expenses are six or eight thousand, so Bela and I could go abroad every year on the remainder. I even promised the child we’d go to Paris next week. Confound it! Six thousand roubles will barely suffice