The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [313]
‘Three roubles.’
‘Ha ha ha!’ the Baroness laughed, ‘this doll cost fifteen …’
‘Who sold you the doll?’ the judge asked Mrs Stawska.
‘Mr Rzecki,’ she replied, with a blush.
‘What has Mr Rzecki to say?’ asked the judge.
This was precisely the moment to utter my speech. So I began: ‘Your worship … It is with painful surprise that I … I mean … I see before me evil triumphant, and so forth … this oppressed lady …’
Suddenly my mouth dried up, so I couldn’t utter a word. Fortunately Wokulski spoke up: ‘Rzecki was present at the sale, the doll was sold by me.’
‘For three roubles?’ asked the Baroness, her eyes glittering like those of a lizard.
‘Yes, for three roubles. It was shop-soiled, we were disposing of it.’
‘Would you sell me such a doll for three roubles?’
‘No, madam. Nothing will ever be sold to you in my store!’
‘What proof do you have, sir, that this doll was purchased in your store?’ asked the judge.
‘That’s the point!’ cried the Baroness, ‘the proof!’
‘Hush!’ the judge threatened her.
‘Where did you buy your doll, madam?’ Wokulski asked the Baroness.
‘At Lesser’s.’
‘So we have proof,’ said Wokulski. ‘I imported this kind of doll from abroad, in parts: heads and bodies separate. If you will unfasten the head, your honour, my name will be found inside.’
The Baroness started to grow uneasy. The judge picked up the doll which had caused so much chagrin and cut its waistcoat with his official scissors, then began very attentively unfastening the head from the torso. Helena, surprised at first, watched this operation then turned to her mother and said in a low voice: ‘Mama, why is that gentlemen undressing Mimi? She will be shy …’
Suddenly realising what was going on, she burst into tears and, hiding her face in Mrs Stawska’s dress, cried: ‘Oh, mama — why is he cutting her? It hurts terribly … Mama, mama, I don’t want them to cut Mimi up.’
‘Don’t cry, Helena, Mimi will get better and be still prettier,’ Wokulski soothed her, no less moved than she. Meanwhile, Mimi’s head had fallen amidst the papers. The judge looked inside and, handing the label to the Baroness, asked: ‘Well, madam, pray read what is written there?’
The Baroness pressed her lips together, but said nothing.
‘Then let Mr Maruszewicz read aloud what is written there.’
‘Jan Mincel and Stanisław Wokulski,’ groaned Maruszewicz.
‘Not Lesser?’
‘No.’
All this time, the Baroness’s maid had been behaving in a very ambiguous manner: she blushed, turned pale, hid between the benches … The judge was watching her out of the corner of his eye: suddenly he said: ‘Now, miss, pray tell us what happened to this doll? The truth, if you please, for you are under oath …’
The girl he addressed, clutched at her head with the utmost terror, fell on her knees at the bench, and replied: ‘The doll got broken, your honour.’
‘The doll of yours, Baroness Krzeszowska’s doll?’
‘The very same …’
‘Well, but only her head would break, so where’s-the rest?’
‘In the attic, your honour. Oh, what won’t I get for this?’
‘You won’t get anything: it would be worse not to tell the truth. And you, madam, the accuser, do you hear this?’
The Baroness looked down and folded her arms over her bosom like a martyr. The judge began writing. A gentleman seated on the second bench (the mangler, of course) exclaimed to the red-faced lady: ‘So now, did she steal it? Just look, madam, what comes of your chatter! Eh?’
‘If a woman is pretty, she can get out of going to jail,’ said the red-faced biddy to her neighbour.
‘You won’t, though!’ the mangler muttered.
‘You’re a fool!’
‘You’re a bigger one!’
‘Silence!’ the judge exclaimed. Then we were told to rise, and heard a judgement exculpating Mrs Stawska entirely.
‘Now,’ the judge ended, ‘you can enter a charge of slander.’
He came down into the court, shook Mrs Stawska by the hand and added: ‘I am sorry to have charged you, and am very pleased to congratulate you.’
Baroness Krzeszowska had spasms, and the red-faced lady said to her neighbour: ‘Even the