Part 34 (1/2)
”I shall defend you. You see that after all I am capable of defending you.--But time is precious:--they are prosecuting you for another crime too, you know, from which to escape is a duty. There is not a moment to lose. Fly!”
”Whither? I cannot take new misfortunes to mother's house.”
”I have an idea. We have a relation of whom we have heard much, far off in the interior of the country, where they will never look for you, since we were never on good terms with him, Uncle Topandy.”
”That infidel?” exclaimed Lorand; then he added bitterly, ”It was a good idea of yours, indeed: I shall have a very good place in the house of an atheist, who lives at enmity with the whole earth, and with Heaven besides.”
”There you will be well hidden.”
”Well and for ever.”
”Don't say that. This danger will pa.s.s away.”
”Listen to me, Desi,” said Lorand severely. ”I shall abide by what you say: I shall go away, without once looking behind: I shall bury myself, but on one condition, which you must accept, or I shall go to the nearest police station and report myself.”
”What do you wish?”
”That you shall never tell either mother or grandmother, where I have gone to.”
”Never?” I inquired, frightenedly.
”No, only after ten years, ten years from to-day.”
”Why?”
”Don't ask me: only give me your word of honor to keep my secret. If you do not do so, you will inflict a heavy sorrow on me, and on all our family.”
”But if circ.u.mstances change?”
”I said, not for ten years. And, if the whole world should dance with delight, still keep peace and don't call for me, or put my mother on my tracks. I have a special reason for my desire, and that reason I cannot tell you.”
”But if they ask me, if they weep before me?”
”Tell them nothing ails me, I am in a good place. I shall take another name, [49]Balint Tatray. Topandy also shall know me under that name. I shall find my way to his place as bailiff, or servant, whichever he will accept me as, and then I shall write to you once every month. You will tell my loved ones at home what you know of me. And they will love you twice as well for it: they will love you in place of me.”
[Footnote 49: A name peculiarly Magyar.]
I hesitated. It was a difficult promise.
”If you love me, you must undertake it for my sake.”
I clung to him and said I would undertake to keep the secret. For ten years I would not say before mother or grandmother where their dearest son had gone.
Would they reach the end of those ten years?
”You undertake that--on your word of honor?” said Lorand, gazing deeply into my eyes; ”on that honor by which you just now so proudly appealed to me? Look, the whole aronffy name is borne by you alone. Do you undertake it for the honor of that whole name, not to mention this secret before mother or grandmother?”
”I do--on my word of honor.”
He grasped my hand. He trusted so much to that word!