The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [375]
‘And when you finish off these great lords, what then?’
‘We shall of necessity join with your common folk, we shall be the intelligentsia which today they don’t have … We shall teach them our philosophy, our politics, our economics, and they will certainly come out better with us than they have done with their leaders hitherto … Leaders!’ he added, with a smile.
Wokulski made a gesture. ‘It seems to me,’ he said, ‘that you, who wish to cure everyone else of dreaming, are a dreamer yourself.’
‘That again?’ asked Szuman.
‘Yes … You have no ground to stand on, yet you want to seize hold of others … You’d better think of honest equality with other people, not of conquering the world, and don’t try to cure other people’s faults before curing your own, which only make more enemies for you. Besides, you yourself don’t know what to hold on to; once you despised the Jews, now you evaluate them too highly.’
‘I despised individuals, I respect the strength of the community.’
‘Just the opposite to me, who despise the community but sometimes respect individuals.’
Szuman pondered. ‘Do as you please,’ he said, taking his hat, ‘but the fact remains that if you leave your company, it will fall into the hands of Szlangbaum and a whole pack of wretched Jews. But if you stay, you might bring in honest and respectable people who have not many faults, and all the Jewish contacts.’
‘In either case, the Jews will dominate the firm.’
‘But without your help, orthodox and reactionary Jews will do it, while with your help, university-trained ones would.’
‘Isn’t it all the same?’ Wokulski replied, with a shrug.
‘Not at all. We’re linked with them by race and a common position, but our views divide us. We have education, they — the Talmud; we, sense — and they, cunning; we are rather cosmopolitan, they are particularists, who see nothing beyond their synagogue and council. As far as common enemies are concerned, they are excellent allies, but when it’s the progress of Judaism … then they are an intolerable burden to us. This is why it is in the interests of civilisation that the guidance of affairs be in our hands. The others can only dirty the world with their gabardines and garlic, but not move it ahead … Think of that, Staś!’
He pressed Wokulski’s hand and left, whistling the air: ‘Oh Rachel, when the Lord in His mysterious goodness …’
‘So,’ thought Wokulski, ‘a conflict is brewing up between progressive and reactionary Jews over us, and I am to take part in it as an ally for one or the other side. A fine role! Oh, how it bores and wearies me!’
He began dreaming, and again he saw Geist’s house surrounded by walls and an infinite number of steps, at the summit of which was the statue of the brass goddess, with her head in the clouds, bearing the enigmatic inscription: ‘Unchangeable and pure’. For a moment, as he looked at the folds of her robe, he wanted to laugh at Izabela, at her triumphant admirer and at his own sufferings. ‘Is it possible? Is it possible?’ he thought, ‘that I …?’
But at once the statue vanished and the pain returned and settled in his heart like a great conqueror no one could match.
A few days after Szuman’s visit, Rzecki appeared at Wokulski’s. He was very poorly, leaning on a stick, and the ascent to the second floor tired him so much that he sank out of breath into a chair and spoke with difficulty. Wokulski was shocked. ‘What’s the matter with you, Ignacy?’ he cried.
‘Oh, it’s nothing. Partly old age, partly … Nothing at all.’
‘But you need treatment, my dear man, you ought to go away somewhere.’
‘I tell you, I tried to … I even went to the railroad station … But I felt so lonesome for Warsaw, and … for our store …’ he added, more quietly, ‘that … Ah, never mind! Excuse me for coming.