Part 21 (1/2)
”Poor woman!” sighed Mrs. Ershebet. ”She, at least, deserves a better fate!”
Susi had reached the door, but when she heard these words she turned round and cried. ”A better fate? Trust me, if I were to be born again, and if I were to know all that has happened to Viola, still I would not have another husband. If they hang him, I'll sit down under the gallows, thanking G.o.d that I was his wife. There is not such another heart on the earth as his. But, adieu! and may G.o.d bless you!”
”I am sure,” said Vandory, looking after her, ”that Viola had no hand in this matter. A man who goes on for eight years loving his wife in this manner cannot act meanly and disgracefully!”
He had scarcely said these words when Tengelyi entered the room, exclaiming, ”Is it true that there has been a robbery committed here?”
”Only the safe was forced open,” replied Mrs. Ershebet, trembling; ”the other parts of----”
”The safe? Give me the keys! Where are the keys?”
”I dare say they are in your desk. But the safe is open.”
Tengelyi hastened up to the place, and throwing open the lid, he bent down and turned the papers about, while his wife and Vandory stood by silent and anxious. The fearful contraction of his features showed them the extent of his loss. At length he rose, and throwing himself back in his chair, he covered his face with his hands. ”I am lost!” muttered he.
”My papers are gone--I am a ruined man!”
Mrs. Ershebet and Vandory did all in their power to take off the first sharp edge of his sorrow; but what they said was unheeded by him.
”Right? It's all right,” said Tengelyi; ”the papers only are lost, are they? Oh! I know it. You found the money all safe--it lay here close to the door--did it not? But do you know, woman, that we are no longer n.o.ble! We and our children are not n.o.ble! We are peasants!--things to be despised, to be kicked, to be trodden under foot, things that have no property, and that can have no merits, things like those which inhabit the hovels around us. They are not aliens, because they were born here; but still they have no rights, no property, and no country!” And, turning to Vandory, the notary told him all that had happened at Dustbury; adding, ”Now you know it all. They ask for proofs of my n.o.ble descent. I came from another county; my father, in his position as a curate, had little cause to care for his n.o.bility; n.o.body ever doubted my rights, and I thought it was quite superfluous to have my t.i.tle proclaimed in this county; and now my papers and patents are lost! Alas!
my poor son!”
”Jonas,” said Vandory, ”you know that I too have had a loss. You know the extent of that loss, and how likely it is to affect those things which I care most about in this world. You understand me! But let us place our trust in G.o.d.”
”You have no children! Is there any son of yours the worse off for what you have lost?”
”I understand you, and believe me I feel for you. My sympathy would certainly be greater, if you were indeed deprived of your rights as a n.o.bleman. But is there no hope? Those papers are of no use to him who stole them. He will send and ask a certain price for them. But suppose he did not, cannot you prove that your papers were stolen, and that you and your father enjoyed all the privileges of n.o.bility? Besides, you can make an appeal to the king's grace.”
”The king's grace for _me_, a poor village notary?”
”Why not? If we do not find your papers, I myself will go to Vienna. I will kneel before the king's majesty, and state the case to him. The county is sure to send a pet.i.tion, and I'll tell the king that you have a family, and that you are wretched for their sake. G.o.d has made the king so rich and so powerful--he has surely given him a feeling heart, and a sense of pity and compa.s.sion for those that suffer.”
”Friend,” said Tengelyi, impatiently, ”you are as mad as any optimist I ever met with. The county, you say, is sure to pet.i.tion in my favour?
Don't you see that there is a purpose in this robbery?--that it is part of a plot to ruin me? and of a plot, too, which those very gentlemen have made who, you fondly believe, are sure to pet.i.tion in my favour?
Or do you think it's chance that my n.o.ble descent, which no one ever doubted, is publicly denied at the very time that my papers are stolen?
Or was the composition of the commission accidental? Or was it an accident that no one told me I should be called upon to prove my n.o.bility? Is all this mere chance and accident? Oh! you would not say so, if you had seen that fellow Catspaw as he stood by the table sneering at me! I am a victim to their diabolical plots! Viola is but their tool. I'm down, never to rise again!”
”For G.o.d's sake, Jonas!” cried Mrs. Ershebet, seizing her husband's hand; ”my heart is ready to break when I see you thus desponding. Think of the past!--think of all our sorrows and troubles!--did we not often all but despair, when----”
Tengelyi's face bore the impress of the deepest agony. He pressed his wife's hand, and asked with a low and tremulous voice,--”What is it that has happened to Vilma?”
Her cheek grew pale, and her voice failed her.
”Ershebet!” gasped the notary; ”what has become of my daughter?”
But Ershebet, scared by the expression of his face, was silent. Vandory searched vainly for words to inform his friend of what had happened.
”I see!” said Tengelyi, pus.h.i.+ng back her hand, which trembled in his.