They Were Divided - Miklos Banffy [160]
This last question was raised by Mihaly Karolyi, who by then had become the acknowledged leader of the Independent Party. Karolyi praised the part played by Poincaré and asked why there had been no criticism of the totally passive role played by the Ballplatz throughout the whole Balkan crisis and the London Conference which had followed. This attitude was not entire logical, coming from the representative of those who had extended the hand of friendship to Serbia from the great height of the pseudo-parliament in the Hotel Royal’s ballroom: for how could someone who saw no wrong in aggression emanating from Belgrade condemn the passivity of Vienna?
The presence of the delegation brought quite a number of Hungarians to the Austrian capital.
It was also the reason why Balint found himself there. He had been appointed in the autumn by Tisza who wished to reward him for having given up his non-party stand and joining the government party when Tisza took office.
Abady had thought about this for some time and the move had made things easier for him, especially in regard to his work for the Co-operatives. Now he no longer had to apply for an audience with the appropriate minister but could buttonhole him at any time in the party’s private rooms. Balint’s change of heart had had nothing to do with his political beliefs. It the past he had remained free of party allegiances only because of his innate distaste for any restraint on his freedom of action. Now he overcame this.
He had not come to Vienna from Budapest with the others, but from Switzerland where he had just spent a few days with Adrienne on the shores of Lac Léman near Nyon. From there Adrienne had gone on to Lausanne to visit her daughter while Balint returned to Vienna. In their little pension they had registered as man and wife – which in those days before passports posed no problems – and indeed this is what they now considered themselves.
That terrible unbreakable chain which had bound Adrienne to her incurably mad husband had shattered of its own accord in the autumn. On November 2nd Pal Uzdy died suddenly.
He had been in excellent health until the end of the summer and indeed, throughout the four years of his confinement, and though his mind had gradually grown ever more clouded, his physical condition had even improved. He had put on weight and there seemed to be no reason why he should not live for years, even possibly outliving his wife.
In the middle of September, however, his persecution-mania took a new turn. He said nothing to anyone, not even to Adrienne who visited him often, but he began to imagine that his medical adviser was trying to poison him. Normally it was to Adrienne that he would confide his innermost thoughts, but not this time. It was his keeper who began to notice a change in the patient and soon diagnosed the trouble. Uzdy started by sniffing at his food suspiciously, and then leaving most of it on the plate until he was eating almost nothing. The doctor did his best to persuade him to eat but though Uzdy pretended to agree, he would tip the soup into the wash-basin and throw the meat and vegetables into the lavatory pan. When this was discovered they tried installing a little electric cooker in Uzdy’s room so that he himself could prepare the eggs that his keeper brought him telling the sick man, though of course it was not true, that he had smuggled them in from outside without the hospital people knowing anything about it. He also brought him apples and pears and a little silver knife with which to peel them himself. This worked for a few days, but proved to be a failure when Uzdy, from his window, caught sight of his keeper talking to the hated doctor. From then on he refused to eat at all, and would soon have died of starvation if Fate had not decided otherwise.
He grew very thin, barely more than skin and bones, and for hours he would pace up and down his room without stopping. Soon he could hardly keep himself upright, but reeled from side to side grabbing hold of whatever piece of furniture