Part 22 (1/2)
said Father Voynovski.
Then he commanded to bring mead which he poured out himself, and they drank with much pleasure as men do who have joy at their heart strings.
With the third gla.s.s the priest became serious.
”For the a.s.sistance, for the good word, for the honesty, let me pay,”
said he, ”even with good advice.”
”I am listening.”
”Do not settle your son in Vyrambki. The young lady is beautiful beyond every description. She may also be honorable, I say naught against that; but she is a Sieninski, not she alone, but Pan Gideon is so proud of this that if any man, no matter who, were to ask for her, even Yakobus our king's son, he would not seem too high to Pan Gideon. Guard your son, do not let him break his young heart on that pride, or wound himself mortally like Yatsek. Out of pure and well-wis.h.i.+ng friends.h.i.+p do I say this, desiring to pay for your kindness with kindness.”
Pan Serafin drew his palm across his forehead as he answered,--
”They dropped down on us at Yedlinka as from the clouds because of what happened on the journey. I went once to Pan Gideon's on a neighborly visit, but he did not return it. Noting his pride and its origin I have not sought his acquaintance or friends.h.i.+p. What has come came of itself. I will not settle my son in Vyrambki, nor let him be foolish at Pan Gideon's mansion. We are not such an ancient n.o.bility as the Sieninskis, nor perhaps as Pan Gideon, but our n.o.bility grew out of war, out of that which gives pain, as Charnyetski described it. We shall be able to preserve our own dignity--my son is not less keen on that point than I am. It is hard for a young man to guard against Cupid, but I will tell you, my benefactor, what Stashko told me when recently at Pan Gideon's. I inquired touching Panna Anulka. 'I would rather,' said he, 'not pluck an apple than spring too high after it, for if I should not reach the fruit, shame would come of my effort.'”
”Ah! he has a good thought in his head!” exclaimed Father Voynovski.
”He has been thus from his boyhood,” added Pan Serafin with a certain proud feeling. ”He told me also, that when he had learnt what the girl had been to Tachevski, and what he had pa.s.sed through because of her, he would not cross the road of so worthy a cavalier. No, my benefactor, I do not take a mortgage on Vyrambki to have my son near Pan Gideon's.
May G.o.d guard my Stanislav, and preserve him from evil.”
”Amen! I believe you as if an angel were speaking. And now let some third man take the girl, even one of the Bukoyemskis, who boast of such kinsfolk.”
Pan Serafin smiled, drank out his mead, took farewell, and departed.
Father Voynovski went to the church to thank G.o.d for that unexpected a.s.sistance, and then he waited for Yatsek impatiently.
When at last Yatsek came, the old man ran out to the yard and seized him by the shoulders.
”Yatsek,” exclaimed he, ”thou canst give ten ducats for a crupper. Thou hast one hundred ducats, as it were, on the table, and Vyrambki remains to thee.”
Yatsek fixed on Father Voynovski eyes that were sunken from sleeplessness and suffering, and asked, with astonishment,--
”What has happened?”
”A really good thing, since it came from the heart of an honest man.”
Father Voynovski noted with the greatest consolation that Yatsek in spite of his terrible suffering, and all his heart tortures, received, as it were, a new spirit on learning of the agreement with Pan Serafin.
For some days he spoke and thought only of horses, wagons, outfit, and servants, so that it seemed as though there was no place for aught else in him.
”Here is thy medicine, thy balsam; here are thy remedies,” repeated the priest to himself; ”for if a man entrapped by a woman and never so unhappy were going to the army he would have to be careful not to buy a horse that had heaves or was spavined; he would have to choose sabres, and fit on his armor, try his lance once and a second time, and, turning from the woman to more fitting objects, find relief for his heart in them.”
And he remembered how, when young, he himself had sought in war either death or forgetfulness. But since war had not begun yet, death was still distant from Yatsek in every case; meantime he was filled with his journey, and with questions bound up in it.
There was plenty to do. Pan Serafin and his son came again to the priest with whom Yatsek was living. Then all went to the city together to draw up the mortgage. There, also, they found a part of Yatsek's outfit; the remainder, the experienced and clear-headed priest advised to search out in Warsaw or Cracow. This beginning of work took up some days, during which young Stanislav, whose slight wound was almost healed, gave earnest a.s.sistance to Yatsek, with whom he contracted a more and more intimate acquaintance and friends.h.i.+p. The old men were pleased at this, for both held it extremely important. The honest Pan Serafin even began to be sorry that Yatsek was going so promptly, and to persuade the priest not to hasten his departure.
”I understand,” said he, ”I understand well, my benefactor, why you wish to send him away at the earliest; but in truth I must tell you that I think no ill of that Panna Anulka. It is true that immediately after the duel she did not receive Pan Yatsek very nicely, but remember that she and Pani Vinnitski were s.n.a.t.c.hed from the jaws of the wolves by my son and the Bukoyemskis. What wonder, then, that, at sight of the blood and the wounds of those gentlemen, she was seized with an anger, which Pan Gideon roused in her purposely, as I know. Pan Gideon is a stubborn man, truly; but when I was there the poor girl came to me perfectly penitent. 'I see,' said she, 'that we did not act justly, and that some reparation is due to Pan Yatsek.' Her eyes became moist immediately, and pity seized me, because that face of hers is comely beyond measure. Besides, she has an honest soul and despises injustice.”