The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [367]
When the young man had gone, the Baron summoned Maruszewicz. ‘I don’t know,’ said the Baron anxiously, ‘whether we haven’t committed a folly … I have a tenant now, but judging from the description, I’m afraid he is one of the young men my wife drove out.’
‘Never mind,’ Maruszewicz replied, ‘providing they’ve paid in advance.’
Next morning three young men moved into the apartment, but so quietly that no one saw them. No one even noticed that they held sessions with Klein in the evenings. However a few days later, Maruszewicz — very vexed — rushed to the Baron, exclaiming: ‘Do you know, Baron, that they are precisely those scoundrels the Baroness threw out? Maleski, Patkiewicz …’
‘Never mind,’ replies the Baron, ‘they won’t vex my wife, providing they’ve paid in advance.’
‘But they’re vexing me!’ Maruszewicz burst out. ‘If I open a window, one of them shoots peas at me through a pea-shooter, which isn’t at all agreeable. And when a few people visit me, or one of the ladies (he added more quietly) they drum on the windows with peas, so it’s impossible to sit there … They interfere with me … They compromise me … I shall go to the police station, and complain!’
Naturally the Baron told his lodgers this, and begged them not to shoot peas at Maruszewicz’s windows. They ceased, but for all that, whenever Maruszewicz received any lady in his apartment, which happened rather often, one of the lads at once leant out of the window, and bawled: ‘Janitor! Janitor! Do you know who the lady is, who went to see Mr Maruszewicz?’
Of course, the janitor doesn’t even know that a woman went there, but after such questions the entire apartment house is informed of the fact. Maruszewicz is furious with them, the more so as the Baron’s reply to his complaints was: ‘You yourself advised me not to keep the apartment empty.’
And the Baroness is grown humble, because on the one hand she fears her husband, and on the other — the students. In this way, the Baroness and Maruszewicz are being punished for her malice and spite, and for his intrigues, by one and the same instrument, while honest Klein has the company he wanted.
Yes, there is justice in the world!
That Maruszewicz is shameless, upon my word! Today he hurried to Szlangbaum with a complaint about Klein. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘one of your clerks, who lives in Baroness Krzeszowska’s house, is quite simply compromising me.’
‘How is he compromising you, sir?’ asked Szlangbaum, opening his eyes wide.
‘He visits with those students whose windows look out on the yard. And, sir, they stare into my windows, shoot peas at me, and if several persons gather, they shout that there’s a card-sharping school in my apartment.’
‘Mr Klein will not be working for me after July,’ replied Szlangbaum, ‘you’d better speak to Mr Rzecki, they’ve known one another longest.’
Maruszewicz called on me in turn, and again told his story of the students who call him a card-sharp or compromise ladies visiting him. ‘Fine ladies!’ thought I, while I replied aloud, ‘Mr Klein is in the store all day, so he cannot be responsible for his friends.’
‘Yes, but Mr Klein has some secret understanding with them; he persuaded them to move back into the house; he visits them and receives them in his apartment.’
‘A young man,’ I replied, ‘naturally prefers to keep company with other young men.’
‘But I don’t want to suffer on that account! Let him keep them quiet … Or I’ll start a court case against them all.’
What a hope — that Klein should pacify the students, or unite them in sympathy for Maruszewicz! However, I warned Klein and added that it would be very unpleasant if he, a clerk of Wokulski’s, were to have a court case involving students’ antics. Klein heard me out, then shrugged. ‘What’s it to do with me?’ he replied, ‘I might hang such a scoundrel, but I don’t shoot peas at his windows, or call him a card-sharp. What are his card parties to me?’
He was right. So I didn’t say another word.
I must be off … away! If only Klein doesn’t get mixed up in some foolishness. It’s terrible