The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [304]
‘I have none,’ she replied, blushing, ‘Baroness Krzeszowska made such a scene because she had to pay a hundred thousand for the house on account of my not interceding with Mr Wokulski on her behalf, and so forth … that I said goodbye to her, and won’t go there any more. Of course, she’s given us notice to quit by New Year.’
‘Did she pay you what she owed?’
‘Oh …’ Mrs Stawska sighed, dropping her muff, which Klein instantly retrieved.
‘So — she didn’t?’
‘No … She said she hadn’t any money just then, and wasn’t sure if my bill was right.’
Mrs Stawska and I smiled at the Baroness’s eccentricities, then said goodbye hopefully. As she was going out, Klein opened the door for her so gallantly that either he regards her as our boss’s future wife — or is in love with her himself! He also lives in the Baroness’s house, and sometimes visits Mrs Stawska: but during his visits he sits there so dejectedly that little Helena once asked her grandma: ‘Didn’t Mr Klein take his castor oil today?’ He’s a dreamer! But who wouldn’t dream of such a woman?
Now I will describe the tragedy, the mere recollection of which stifles me with rage.
On the day before Christmas Eve in the year 1878, I was in the store when I got a letter from Mrs Stawska, asking me to go there that evening. The letter impressed me as being marked by emotion, so I thought perhaps she had had news of her husband. ‘He’ll certainly come back,’ I thought, ‘may the devil take lost husbands who find themselves after a few years.’
Towards evening, in rushes Wirski, breathless and confused: he dragged me into my room, shut the door, threw himself into the armchair without taking his coat off, and said: ‘Do you know why Krzeszowska stayed in Maruszewicz’s apartment till midnight yesterday?’
‘Till midnight — in Maruszewicz’s apartment?’
‘Yes, and with that scoundrel, her attorney, too. The blackguard Maruszewicz looked out of his window and saw Mrs Stawska dressing a doll, and the Baroness went into his apartment with her opera-glasses to check.’
‘What then?’ I asked.
‘Why, a doll belonging to the Baroness’s late daughter disappeared from her apartment a few days ago, and today that madwoman is accusing Mrs Stawska of …’
‘Of what?’
‘Of stealing the doll!’
I crossed myself. ‘Think no more of it,’ I said, ‘that doll was bought in our store.’
‘I know,’ he said, ‘but at nine o’clock this morning the Baroness rushed into Mrs Stawska’s apartment with a policeman, ordered him to seize the doll and write out a charge. The charge has already gone to court …’
‘Are you mad, Mr Wirski? After all, the doll was bought here!’
‘I know, I know — but what does that signify when there’s already a scandal?’ said Wirski. ‘The worst of it is (I know this from the policeman) that, because Mrs Stawska didn’t want Helena to find out about the doll, she didn’t want to show it at first, begged them to speak quietly, burst into tears … The policeman says he was embarrassed, because in the first place he didn’t know why the Baroness had brought him into Mrs Stawska’s apartment. But when the serpent began shrieking: “She robbed me! The doll disappeared on the very day when Stawska was in my apartment for the last time … Arrest her, for I will answer with my entire fortune that the charge is just!” — so then my policeman took the doll to the police station, and asked Mrs Stawska to go with him … A scandal, a dreadful scandal!’
‘And what did you do then?’ I asked, furious with rage.
‘I wasn’t home at the time. Mrs Stawska’s servant made matters worse by calling the policeman names in the street, for which she is now sitting in the jail herself … While that owner of the Parisian laundry, hoping to curry favour with the Baroness, called Mrs Stawska names … The only satisfaction we have is that the honest students poured something so nasty on the Baroness’s head that it can’t be washed out …’
‘But the court! What about justice?’ I cried.
‘The court will find Mrs Stawska not guilty,’ he said, ‘that is obvious. But as for the scandal, well … The poor lady is ruined: today she dismissed her pupils,