The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [274]
‘Besides,’ he went on to himself, ‘what’s it to me if Izabela always uses the same arguments? She isn’t the Holy Ghost, to think up new ones every time, nor am I so unusual that it would be worth her while to strive for originality. Let her say what she likes … What’s more important is the fact that general laws about women don’t apply to her. Mrs Wąsowska is first and foremost a pretty female of the species, but not her …
‘Didn’t the Baron say the same thing of his Ewelina?’
The lamp went out. Wokulski quenched it, and threw himself into bed.
For the next two days it rained, and the guests at Zasławek did not go out. Ochocki took to his books and hardly ever showed himself; Ewelina suffered from migraine; Izabela and Felicja read French magazines, and the rest of the company, led by the Duchess, played whist. On one occasion, Wokulski noticed that Mrs Wąsowska, instead of indulging in a flirtation with him, for which opportunities kept arising, behaved very indifferently. He was struck, however, that when Starski tried to kiss her hand, she hastily drew it away, and told him, crossly, never to dare to do it again. Her anger was so sincere that Starski himself was surprised, and embarrassed, while the Baron, though his cards were not going well, was in an excellent humour. ‘Would you allow me to kiss your hand?’ he asked, some time after this incident.
‘You — of course,’ she replied, giving him her hand. The Baron kissed it as though it were a relic, glancing triumphantly at Wokulski, who thought that his titled friend really had little reason for over-much satisfaction.
Starski was gazing at his cards so intently that he appeared not to notice what had happened.
On the third day it cleared up, and the fourth was so fine and dry that Felicja proposed a drive to pick mushrooms. That day the Duchess ordered lunch earlier and dinner later. Towards twelve-thirty, the brake drove up in front of the palace, and Mrs Wąsowska gave the signal to get in. ‘Let’s make haste and not waste time … Where’s your shawl, Ewelina? Let the servants get into the brake and take the baskets. And now,’ she added, glancing fleetingly at Wokulski, ‘let each gentleman choose his lady …’
Felicja wanted to protest, but at this moment the Baron leaped to Ewelina, and Starski to Mrs Wąsowska, who bit her lip, said: ‘I never thought you would choose me again …’ and gave Wokulski a withering look.
‘We, cousin, shall keep together,’ Ochocki cried to Izabela, ‘but you will have to sit on the box, for I’m going to drive.’
‘Mrs Wąsowska won’t let you, for you will overturn us,’ exclaimed Felicja, to whom Fate had ordained Wokulski.
‘Oh, let him drive, let him overturn us,’ said Mrs Wąsowska, ‘today I wouldn’t care if we all got our legs broken … I pity the mushroom that gets into my hands.’
‘I’m the first of them,’ exclaimed Starski, ‘if it comes to being devoured …’
‘Very well, if you agree to have your head cut off first,’ Mrs Wąsowska replied.
‘I lost it long ago …’
‘Not before I noticed … But let us be off…’
XXVII
Woods, Ruins, Enchantments
THEY set off. The Baron, as usual, was whispering to his fiancée, Starski flirting outrageously with Mrs Wąsowska, who accepted it cordially enough, to Wokulski’s surprise, and Ochocki drove the four-in-hand. This time, however, his enthusiasm was restrained by the vicinity of Izabela, to whom he kept turning.
‘That Ochocki is a merry young fellow,’ thought Wokulski, ‘he says he’s had quite enough of Izabela’s arguments, but now he’s talking to her and nobody else … Of course, he wants to prejudice me against her …’ And he fell into a very dismal frame of mind, for he was certain that Ochocki was in love with Izabela, and that there was really no point in struggling against such a rival. ‘Young, handsome, talented,’ he told himself. ‘She’d have neither