The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [314]
‘Oh, how she blasphemes!’ muttered the owner of the mangle.
We started leaving. Wokulski gave Mrs Stawska his arm and moved ahead, while I began carefully conducting Mrs Misiewicz down the grubby staircase.
‘I said it would end this way,’ the old lady assured me, ‘but you didn’t believe me.’
‘I didn’t believe you?’
‘Yes, you were ever so dejected … Goodness, what’s that?’
Her last words were directed towards the poor student who, along with his companion, was waiting at the door, obviously for Baroness Krzeszowska, and thinking it was she coming out, he’d done himself up like a dead body for the benefit of — Mrs Misiewicz. He at once saw his error, and was so ashamed that he ran a few steps forward. ‘Patkiewicz! Stop! Here they come!’ Maleski exclaimed.
‘Devil take you,’ Patkiewicz burst out, ‘you always have to compromise me.’
On hearing a noise in the doorway, he turned and once again displayed the dead body — to Wirski. This finally brought about the collapse of the young men: so they went home, very vexed with each other, and on different sides of the street. But by the time we caught up with them in our carriages, they were together again, and bowed to us with the utmost civility.
XXX
The Journal of the Old Clerk
I KNOW WHY I wrote so much about Mrs Stawska’s law-suit. This is why … There are many unbelievers in this world, and I too am sometimes an unbeliever and doubt Heavenly Providence. Sometimes, too, when political matters go badly, or when I see human misery and scoundrels triumphant (if one may use such a phrase), I sometimes think to myself: ‘You old fool, Ignacy Rzecki! You imagine the Napoleons will regain their throne, that Wokulski will do something extraordinary because he has talent, and will be happy because he’s honest. You think, you donkey, that although scoundrels prosper while honest people don’t, that nevertheless the evil ones will be shamed, and the good covered with glory in the end. Is that what you imagine? If so, you are very foolish. There is neither order nor justice in the world; it’s a battlefield. If the good conquer in the fight, it’s all right — while if the bad do, then it’s bad: but don’t for a moment think there is a power which protects only the good … People are like leaves, blown by the wind: when it lands them in a flower-bed, they lie in a flower-bed: but when it throws them into mud — they lie in the mud.’
I have sometimes thought this to myself in moments of doubt; but Mrs Stawska’s trial led me to a completely opposite conclusion, to the belief that sooner or later good people will obtain justice. For, just consider … Mrs Stawska is an excellent lady, so she ought to be happy; Staś is a man beyond all price, so he too should be happy. Yet Staś is always vexed and sad (so much that I feel like weeping when I see him), and Mrs Stawska is put on trial for stealing. So — where’s the justice that rewards the good? You’ll see in a moment, you man of little faith! To help you understand that there is order in this world, I will copy out the following prophecy. In the first place, Mrs Stawska will marry Staś and be happy with him. In the second, Wokulski will renounce that Miss Łęcka of his, and will marry Mrs Stawska, and be happy with her. In the third, young Lulu will become Emperor of France this year, under the name of Napoleon IV he will beat the Germans to a frazzle and will bring justice to the whole world, as my late father prophesied.
That Wokulski will marry Mrs Stawska, and do something out of the ordinary — of this I haven’t the slightest doubt. Admittedly, he isn’t engaged to her yet, hasn’t even proposed, but … he himself doesn’t realise. But I can see it. I can clearly see how things will go, and would suffer my head to be chopped off that it will be so — I have a political nose!
Just watch what happens!
On the day after the trial, Wokulski was at Mrs Stawska’s in the evening, and stayed till eleven. Next day he was in Mrs Miller’s store, inspected the