They Were Divided - Miklos Banffy [133]
While these matters were passing through Balint’s mind, he had been nodding approval of everything Kozma told him but in fact paying less and less attention to what was actually said. So now, when Kozma suggested that when they made their next tour together Balint should not only refrain from accepting any personal financial responsibility but should promise him never in any circumstances to do such a thing again, because such an action was the very negation of the idea of self-help and co-operation, Balint, who had heard only the last few words, at once replied, ‘Of course I’ll promise … of course, you’re quite right!’ and Kozma grinned at the secretary in triumph as if saying, ‘You see how easily he can be convinced! He has even given his promise!’
It was now getting close to lunch-time. They got up and were about to walk up to the castle when Balint realized that he had not even glanced at his mail. Accordingly he asked Kozma to go on to entertain his mother while he and the secretary went through the letters together. He would join them in a few minutes.
The first few letters dealt only with Co-operative business and so, after briefly scanning their contents, he handed them to Ganyi saying how they should be answered. The next letter was in a grey envelope and was from Honey Andras Zutor.
It concerned the notary Gaszton Simo and recounted how the young forester Kula had come to find him in the woods and had recounted that while he, Kula, had been at the market at Hunyad, the Romanian popa Timbus had gone to Pejkoja and threatened Kula’s grandfather, old Juon aluj Maftye. Angrily he had asked the old man why he had gone so far as to denounce Simo for malpractice and how it was that he had dared to appoint a Kolozsvar lawyer to represent him. The old man had been badly scared and had told the priest that he had understood nothing of what was happening, that it was all in the hands of his grandson and that, as he was very infirm and could not read or write, he had merely signed whatever had been put before him. Old Juon had apparently said that he was guilty of nothing and that there was nothing of which he could be accused. The priest had then taken out some paper and tried to induce the old man to put his mark on it, but the grandfather, despite the priest’s menaces, had resisted and had not signed. Kula now wrote that he feared the old man would not be able to hold out for long because he felt death approaching and Timbus had threatened him with eternal damnation. The young man did not know what was in the paper the priest wanted signed but thought it probably countermanded the lawyer’s appointment, though of course it might have been something else, perhaps some appreciative statement about Gaszton Simo. The old man had not been told.
‘… and this is why I am writing to your Lordship,’ ended Honey’s letter, which as usual was clear enough even if lacking in punctuation, ‘because some big trouble may come of it Kula is frightened and sure that Timbus and Simo will certainly shake the old man and he said I saw Simo yesterday he is not an easy man to deal with and he may have been going to say something else but I looked hard at him and perhaps he thought I was going to hit him but it is certain that now he is in a good mood though only three weeks ago he talked about being fed up and wanting to move away but now he doesn’t say this any more but quite different things …’
Balint’s face clouded. When he had left the mountains in August he had looked for a lawyer who spoke Romanian and who could not only plead old Juon’s case at the tax office but who could also speak with the country people when the inspectors came to make their enquiries on the spot. It had not been easy to find the right man because everyone knew that Simo and the head County Sheriff were close friends and that therefore everyone in the Sheriff’s office would