The Doll - Bolesaw Prus [376]
‘You apologise to me, my dear old fellow? I thought you were angry with me!’
‘Me with you?’ replied Rzecki, gazing at him fondly, ‘Me with you? For goodness sake! Business and a difficult problem have brought me here.’
‘Problem?’
‘Just think of it — Klein has been arrested.’
Wokulski drew back.
‘Klein and the other two … you remember? That Maleski and Patkiewicz.’
‘What for?’
‘They were living in Baroness Krzeszowska’s house, well, and it’s true they harassed that Maruszewicz somewhat. He threatened them, but they went one better … In the end, he went to the police station with a complaint. The police came, some trouble occurred, and all three were taken off to jail.’
‘Stupid boys! Stupid boys!’ Wokulski murmured.
‘I said precisely the same,’ Rzecki continued. ‘Of course, nothing will happen to them, but it’s an unpleasant business all the same. That donkey Maruszewicz is alarmed, too … He called on me, swore he wasn’t to blame … I couldn’t help myself, and replied: “I’m sure you’re not to blame, but it’s also true that these days the Good Lord protects scoundrels … For in reality it’s you who ought to be locked up for forging signatures, not those frivolous lads.” He almost burst into tears. He swore that from now on he will keep to the straight and narrow path and that if he hasn’t done so hitherto, it was your fault. “I was full of the noblest intentions,” he said, “but Mr Wokulski, instead of giving me his hand, instead of believing in my good intentions, put me off with contempt.”’
‘An honest soul, to be sure,’ Wokulski smiled. ‘What else?’
‘People are saying in town,’ Rzecki went on, ‘that you’re leaving the company.’
‘Yes …’
‘And that you are handing it over to the Jews.’
‘Well, after all, my fellow members are not an old wardrobe that I am throwing away,’ Wokulski exploded. ‘They have money, they have heads on their shoulders … Let them find other men, and make do.’
‘Who can they find, and even if they could, whom will they trust, if not the Jews? And the Jews are seriously thinking of this business. Not a day passes but Szuman or Szlangbaum visits me, and each tries to persuade me to manage the company after you.’
‘In fact, you are doing so.’
Rzecki made a gesture. ‘With your ideas and your money,’ he replied. ‘But never mind … From this, I see that Szuman belongs to one party and Szlangbaum to another, and they both need a man of straw.’
‘Clever of them!’ Wokulski murmured.
‘But I’ve lost my liking for them,’ Rzecki replied. ‘After all, I’m an old clerk, and I can tell you that as far as they’re concerned, everything depends on humbug, double-dealing and trash.’
‘Don’t insult them too much,’ Wokulski interposed, ‘for after all it was we who raised them up.’
‘It was not!’ Rzecki cried angrily. ‘Whenever one meets them — in Budapest, Constantinople, Paris, London — it’s always the same principle: give as little as possible, and take as much, both materially and morally. It’s deceit, always deceit.’
Wokulski began walking about the room. ‘Szuman was right,’ he said, ‘when he said that dislike of them is mounting, if even you …’
‘I don’t dislike them … I’m retiring from the game … But just look at what is happening here! Where don’t they worm their way in, where don’t they open stores, what don’t they reach out their hands for? And each one, as soon as he occupies some position brings in after him whole legions of his own people, by no means better than we are, often worse. You’ll see what they will do to our store; what sort of clerks there will be, what merchandise … And hardly have they seized the store, than they are making their way into the aristocracy, and already setting about your trading company.’
‘It’s our own fault … our own fault,’ Wokulski repeated. ‘We can’t refuse people the right to acquire positions, but we can defend our own.’
‘You yourself are leaving your position.’
‘But not on their account; they have behaved honourably towards me.’
‘Because they needed you. They made you and your social contacts into a ladder …’
‘Well, never mind that,’ Wokulski interrupted, ‘we