They Were Divided - Miklos Banffy [144]
None of this was as important as the fact that he must stand up for those who were only involved because of him.
Only one consoling thought came to him at this bitter moment. He need no longer worry about his mother’s feelings, for the stroke had mercifully so incapacitated her that they could keep from her all knowledge of what was happening to her only son. She would not have to know how their good name was being besmirched.
But what if matters went so far that he was sent to prison, what would happen then? Could they keep that from her too? And, with a shudder, the wish arose in him that his mother should never live to see that dreadful day.
Two weeks went by, two weeks full of dismal foreboding, during which everyone at Denestornya, the secretary Ganyi, Peter the butler, the two housekeepers, Mrs Tothy and Mrs Baczo, and the other servants, even the retired stable manager, Gergely Szakacs, went about their work with worried faces. Everyone knew that the Simo affair had taken a sinister turn, though no one dared mention it.
Abady himself spoke of it only to Adrienne whom he used to visit from time to time in the evening at the Uzdy villa just outside Kolozsvar. Then, as they lay in each other’s arms, he would talk over with her all the horrible possibilities of the forthcoming case. Adrienne had at once approved of everything he intended to do, saying that he really had no choice, even if it meant going to prison. They had talked over the case from every angle, but never found any other solution. Even so Balint returned from his visits to Adrienne with renewed hope for, despite the fact that everything seemed against him, Adrienne could never bring herself to believe that things would end badly. It was impossible, she said, impossible. It was a moral impossibility and so it just could not be! Faced with this intuitive certainty Balint somehow managed to keep up his own courage.
On the evening before the case was to be heard the principal actors were all in Banffy-Hunyad, even young Kula who was spending the night at the house of Honey Andras Zutor. Everyone would be taking the early train to Kolozsvar where the county courts were held.
Old Juon aluj Maftye did not come because the notary Simo, afraid that he might blurt out the truth under cross-examination, had arranged a medical certificate for him. The old man was glad to stay at home because he was worried about the paper that the priest had made him sign, and yet knew he would never dare to revoke it and state it had been forced out of him. The other accusers were there in force, Gaszton Simo and the popa Timbus, the witnesses to Juon aluj Maftye’s disclaimer, and three others who had been brought in to bear witness to Kula’s connection with Zutor. These last were spending two nights in a shed at Nyiresy’s house so as to make sure they did not stray off somewhere else.
The priest Timbus and Gaszton Simo were dining merrily at Nyiresy’s table along with Simo’s chief protector, the Head Sheriff, the station-master and two lawyers, all important local notabilities and all good friends with Nyiresy and Simo. Beside them the popa was only small fry, but he was there as an essential witness at the following day’s trial.
The wine was flowing and a gypsy band playing for all its worth. The dinner had been lavish, as Simo had contributed a roebuck and at least thirty trout that he said he had confiscated from poachers.
‘Luckily I caught them just at the right moment!’ he said, winking at the Head Sheriff who knew all his little tricks.
‘What a rascal you are, Gaszton!’ he laughed back, even though these were things they never normally spoke about for the Sheriff liked to preserve his dignity.
Nyiresy owned a vineyard near Ermellek