The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [351]
‘But, husband mine!’ cried the Baroness, jumping up, ‘recollect that you at this moment have eleven court cases on hand, respecting debts of thirty thousand roubles.’
‘Pardon me! I have seventeen court cases respecting thirty-nine thousand roubles of debts, if my memory serves. But they are cases over debts. Not a single one have I brought against a respectable woman for stealing a doll…My sins do not include writing a single anonymous letter to blacken an innocent woman, nor has a single one of my creditors been obliged to run away from Warsaw, pursued by scandal, as has happened to a certain Mrs Stawska, thanks to the interference of Baroness Krzeszowska.’
‘Stawska was your mistress.’
‘Pardon me! I don’t deny I sought her favours, but I declare on my honour that she is the noblest woman I ever met in my life. Pray do not be vexed by this superlative applied to another person, and pray deign to believe me when I say that Mrs Stawska left even my…my attempts unanswered. And because, madam, I have the honour of knowing the average woman…so my evidence means something.’
‘What, therefore, is it that you want, my husband?’ asked the Baroness, now in a firm voice.
‘I want…to defend the name we both bear. I want…to enjoin respect for Baroness Krzeszowska in this house. I want to terminate the court cases, and give you protection. To do so, I am obliged to ask you for hospitality. But when I settle my accounts…’
‘You will leave me?’
‘Undoubtedly.’
‘And your debts?’
The Baron rose. ‘My debts are of no interest to you, madam,’ he said, in a tone of profound conviction. ‘If Mr Wokulski, an ordinary gentleman, can make several millions in the course of a few years, then a man with my name can pay off forty thousand in debts, and I too will demonstrate that I know how to work.’
‘You are ill, husband mine,’ replied the Baroness. ‘You know very well that I come from a family which made its own fortune, and I can tell you that you will never be able to work, not even to support yourself…Not even to feed the poorest of men.’
‘So you reject the protection I am offering you, madam, thanks to the persuasion of the Prince and concern for the honour of my name?’
‘Not at all! Pray begin to look after me at last, for hitherto…’
‘As far as I am concerned,’ the Baron interrupted, with another bow, ‘I shall try to forget the past.’
‘You forgot it long ago…You haven’t even visited our daughter’s grave…’
Thus the Baron installed himself in his wife’s abode. He broke off all the law-suits against the tenants, and told the Baroness’s former lawyer that he would have him horse-whipped if he ever spoke disrespectfully of his client, wrote a letter of apology to Mrs Stawska and sent her (to Częstochowa) an enormous bouquet. Finally, he engaged a chef and paid visits with his spouse to various persons in society, having first of all told Maruszewicz, who spread it around town, that if any lady did not return the call, the Baron would require satisfaction from her husband.
Drawing-room society was much upset by the Baron’s wild claims; however, everyone returned calls on the Baron and Baroness, and almost everyone entered into closer social relations with them. In return, the Baroness—and this was a sign of the utmost delicacy of feeling on her part—paid off her husband’s debts without a word to anyone. She was haughty to some of the creditors, she wept with others, and deducted various amounts from nearly everyone on account of money-lender’s interest. She grew agitated—but she paid.
She had several pounds of her husband’s promissory notes in a separate drawer of her writing desk when the following incident occurred. Wokulski’s store was to be taken over in July by Henryk Szlangbaum; and since the new owner did not want to take over the debts or claims of the previous owner, Mr Rzecki was obliged to settle accounts urgently. Among others, he sent