The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [197]
‘What does Hopfer think of it?’
‘Nothing,’ Machalski went on, putting another candle into the iron holder, ‘Hopfer doesn’t want to turn him away, for Kasia Hopfer dotes on Wokulski and maybe the lad will get his grandfather’s estate back after all.’
‘Does he dote on Kasia?’ I inquired.
‘He never so much as looks at her, ungovernable young rascal that he is,’ Machalski replied.
I at once guessed that a lad with such a brain, who bought books and cared nothing for girls might do well as a politician, so I made the acquaintance of Staś that very day and from then on we have got on well together…
Staś was at Hopfer’s three more years and during that time he made many acquaintances among the students and young officials who outdid one another in providing him with books so that he might take the university entrance exam. Among these young men was a certain Mr Leon, a lad still (he wasn’t twenty yet), handsome and clever — but an enthusiast! He was, as it were, my assistant in Wokulski’s political education; for when I talked about Napoleon and the great mission of the Bonapartes, Mr Leon would talk about Mazzini, Garibaldi and other eminent persons. And how well he could inspire the soul!
‘Work hard,’ he sometimes said to Staś, ‘and have faith, because faith can stop the sun in its course, not to mention improving the lot of mankind.’
‘Maybe it will send me to the university?’ Staś asked.
‘I’m positive,’ replied Leon, his eyes flashing, ‘that if you have the faith the first apostles had, even for a while, you’d be at the university already.’
‘Or in a lunatic asylum …’ Wokulski muttered.
Leon began striding about the room, waving his arms. ‘How despicable,’ he exclaimed, ‘if even a man like you has no faith. Just remember what you have already achieved in such a short time: you know so much that you might sit for the examination today …’
‘But what shall I do there?’ Staś sighed.
‘Not much — by yourself. But some dozen, some hundreds like you and me…do you know what we might do?’
His voice broke off at this point. Leon went into convulsions. We could hardly calm him.
On another occasion, Leon reproached us for lacking the spirit of sacrifice. ‘Don’t you know,’ he said, ‘that Christ alone saved mankind through the power of sacrifice? How much better the world would be, if there had always been individuals prepared to sacrifice their lives…’
‘Am I to sacrifice my life for customers who treat me like a dog, or for those lads and clerks who plague me?’ Wokulski asked.
‘Don’t try to wriggle out of it!’ Leon cried, ‘Christ died for the sake of his executioners. But there is no spirit in you. Your spirit is rotting away…Listen to what Tyrteus said: “Sparta, perish! Ere the Messenine hammer crumble the monument of your greatness, and the tombs of your ancestors and scatter their revered bones as prey to the dogs and banish the shades of your forefathers from the gates…Oh ye people, ere the enemy claps you in fetters, smash your fathers’ weapons on the threshold of your home and hurl yourselves into the abyss. Let not the world know what swords were yours, but that your hearts were wanting.” Hearts!’ Leon repeated.
Even then, Staś was very cautious in accepting Leon’s theories; but the lad could influence people as well as any Demosthenes. I remember a crowded meeting one evening, when we all — young and old alike — burst into tears when Leon spoke to us of a perfect world in which stupidity, poverty and injustice would disappear: ‘From that time on,’ he said in great excitement, ‘there will be no differences between people. Gentry and bourgeois, peasants and Jews — all will be brothers.’
‘And clerks?’ Wokulski asked from his corner.
But this interruption did not upset Leon. He suddenly turned to Wokulski, enumerated all the unpleasantness which Staś had been subjected to in the shop, the obstacles put to his studies, and wound up: ‘So that you believe like a brother, so that you can cast out anger from your heart — here I kneel to you, and beg your forgiveness