Part 68 (1/2)
”Don't name him!” cried Rety, violently. ”Would to G.o.d I had never heard his name!”
”You are indeed far gone,” sighed Vandory. ”To think that, instead of repenting, you should hate the man whose pardon you ought to implore!”
”Implore his pardon? his?” cried Rety. ”No! he is the spoiler, the destroyer! Is it not he who caused my only son to leave my house, cursing fate which made him son to _me_? Is it not he who robs me of the affections of the last person that loved me? Tell me of one of my sufferings which may not be traced to him!”
”And who is the cause of all this?”
The sheriff was silent.
”Whose fault is it,” continued Vandory, with great earnestness, ”that the bonds of friends.h.i.+p which once united you are now torn asunder? Who was the persecutor? who the destroyer?”
The sheriff would have spoken, but Vandory proceeded:--
”Tengelyi is in prison. He is locked up with murderers and thieves; and you, the sheriff of the county, use your power and influence only to wreak your vengeance upon him, and to add to his sufferings. Who, I ask, is the injured party?”
”I am not the cause of the notary's sufferings,” said the sheriff, pettishly. ”I am convinced of his innocence; but I cannot stay the arm of justice, even though it strike in a wrong direction.”
”Samuel!” replied the curate, sadly, ”that excuse will exculpate you in the eyes of man; but how will you stand with it before G.o.d, when He calls you to account for Tengelyi's sufferings?”
”I've done all I could do!” retorted Rety. ”I offered to bail him. I implored Skinner, and I instructed Kenihazy, to treat the notary with the greatest mildness. Can you, in reason, ask me to do more?”
”I, as your brother, can indeed ask you to do more! I sacrificed everything to you----”
The sheriff looked confused and ashamed.
”Fear nothing,” said the curate, with a sneer (the first he ever was guilty of): ”n.o.body can hear my words. You need not be ashamed to be reminded of what, it seems, you have forgotten; namely, that it is your brother who speaks to you.”
Rety made an unsuccessful attempt to speak; but Vandory continued:--
”Yes; I am your brother. The papers by which I could have proved my birth are lost. A court of justice might, perhaps, refuse to hear me, if I were to claim my name and property; but you know the truth of what I say, and you cannot deny that I treated you as a brother ought to do.”
”My grat.i.tude----” muttered Rety.
”Where is it? Where is the brotherly affection which was to indemnify me for the loss of wealth; that is to say, of power and influence to do good? This is the fulfilment of your voluntary promise never to refuse any request of mine! I confided in those promises; for I was convinced that I should never abuse my power. We were happy as it was; and I was satisfied with my position, which gave me an opportunity to improve the condition of the peasantry. Even our former intimacy with Tengelyi was on the point of being restored. He was willing to forgive and to forget.
Your children were a new bond of union between you. Whose fault was it that those happy days are gone? I will not accuse you; but I will ask you, when were you happier,--then, or now? You sigh? Oh, Samuel! why did you not listen to the still small voice within you, which protested against the first step on that fatal path? I will not talk of the heartlessness with which you treated Tengelyi. Akosh loved Vilma. You knew it was my dearest wish that these children should not be separated; but your pride revolted at the thought that your son should marry the daughter of a notary; and Tengelyi, the friend of your youth, was ordered to leave your house!”
”I knew nothing of my wife's doings!” cried the sheriff. ”I would never have consented to her treating the notary as she did.”
”Be it so!” continued Vandory, warmly, and even pa.s.sionately. ”I will not argue with you whether that a.s.sertion agrees with what you did afterwards. As the world goes, a father has a right to dictate to his children; I will not quarrel with you because you abused that right. But the abstraction of my doc.u.ments----”
The sheriff started up. ”All is lost!” cried he. ”My own brother condemns me as a villain!”
”G.o.d sees my heart!” replied Vandory. ”When the first attempt at a robbery was made in my house, I would have spurned such a suspicion. I made a voluntary resignation of my birthright. How, then, could I suspect that any one should desire to rob me of the doc.u.ments by which I could prove my rights? That I had no suspicion against you, is shown by my informing you and your wife of my intention to commit those papers to Tengelyi's keeping. But when the robber followed them even to my friend's house; when Viola accused the attorney and your wife as guilty of the theft; when I considered that no one besides you could take an interest in those papers----”
Vandory stopped before he p.r.o.nounced his conclusion. The sheriff covered his face with his hands.
”I am not naturally p.r.o.ne to suspect any one,” continued the curate; ”and to suspect you, of all men, gives me unspeakable grief. If you can explain it, if you can exculpate yourself,--I will thank G.o.d, and ask your forgiveness, even on my knees!”
Rety rose from his chair. His heart was full, to overflowing. Not to speak was death to him. So he told his brother the share which his wife had taken in the robbery, and of her having informed him of it after the deed was done. ”You may despise me,” continued he; ”you may hate me; but I could not, I cannot, act otherwise than I did. My evil genius induced me to marry that beldame. I was blinded by her family, her beauty, and by the praises of people who called her the queen of the county. I knew that she married me for my fortune; and I never mentioned your existence to her. Afterwards, I waited for a good opportunity to break the matter to her; until circ.u.mstances forced me to an explanation. She discovered my son's attachment to Vilma, and insisted on my sending Tengelyi, or, rather, Vilma, out of the house. As for me, I admit that I would have liked it better if Akosh had chosen another woman for his wife; but, partly for your sake, and partly because I hoped that he would change his mind, I refused to obey Lady Rety's commands. She acted for herself; and, when I reproached her, she sneered at me for being in fear of a curate and a poor notary. It was then I told her of your real position, and of the power you had of depriving me of one half of my estates. The wretched woman would not be dependent on your generosity: she availed herself of the attorney's help to deprive you of the papers by which you could prove your claims.”