The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [365]
‘So you, Mr Szlangbaum, would like them to jump into the fire for you?’
‘Of course. After all, they eat my bread, they profit by me; I pay their wages.’
I thought that Lisiecki, who had turned livid on hearing this nonsense, would box his ears for him. However, he controlled himself and merely asked: ‘And do you know, sir, why we’d jump into the fire for Wokulski?’
‘Because he has more money,’ Szlangbaum replied.
‘No, sir. Because he has something you haven’t got, and never will have,’ said Lisiecki, striking himself on the chest.
Szlangbaum went as red as a vampire. ‘What is it?’ he cried. ‘What haven’t I got? We cannot work together, Mr Lisiecki … You insult my religion!’
I seized Lisiecki by the arm and drew him behind the cupboards. All the gentlemen were laughing at the sight of Szlangbaum … Only Zięba (he alone is staying on in the store) flared up and cried: ‘The boss is right! One shouldn’t make fun of a man’s religion, for that is a sacred thing. Where’s freedom of conscience? Where’s progress? Civilisation? Emancipation?’
‘Obsequious little man,’ Klein muttered, then said into my ear: ‘Isn’t Szuman right to say they are asking for trouble? You saw what he was like when he first came here, sir, and what he’s like today?’
Of course, I scolded Klein, for what right has he to alarm his fellow citizens? However, I cannot conceal from myself that Szlangbaum has changed greatly within the course of a year. Previously he was mild, today he’s arrogant and contemptuous; previously he kept silent when an injury was done him, today he quarrels for no reason. Previously he called himself a Pole, today he flaunts his Jewishness. Previously he even believed in nobility and disinterestedness, but now he talks of nothing but money and social contacts. It’s bad!
For all this, he is humble to the customers and the counts, and would even lick the barons’ boots. But he is a real hippopotamus toward his subordinates; he keeps flaring up and treading on people’s toes. It isn’t nice … All the same, the councillor, Szprott, Klein and Lisiecki have no right to threaten him with trouble.
So what do I now signify in the store, alongside a dragon like this? When I want to do the accounts, he watches me over my shoulder; if I give an order, he at once repeats it in a loud voice. I am being increasingly edged out of the shop. To customers he keeps saying: ‘My friend Wokulski … My friend Baron Krzeszowski … My clerk Rzecki …’ though when we are alone, he calls me ‘Dear old Rzecki’.
I have a few times given him to understand, in the most delicate manner, that these affectionate terms give me no pleasure. But he, poor devil, didn’t even realise it; however, I am in the habit of waiting a long time before I insult anyone. Lisiecki does it on the spot, so Szlangbaum respects him.
In his own way, Szuman was right when he saw that we and our ancestors only thought of how to squander money, while they and theirs of how to make it. In this respect, they would already be in the vanguard of mankind, if human values were only based on money … But what’s all this to me?
As I haven’t much to do in the store, I think more and more often of a trip to Hungary. Not to have seen a cornfield or forest in twenty years … Terrible! I began applying for a passport; I thought it would take a month. Meanwhile, Wirski set about it and — hey presto! — he got my passport in four days. I was almost alarmed.
No help for it, I must leave for a few weeks at least. I thought that