Part 23 (1/2)
(”Aha!” I murmured, ”poetic justice with a vengeance; I myself could not have devised a happier _denouement_.”)
”Everything became green and blue before my eyes. My throat contracted.
I was incapable of uttering a word. But the tongue of the little peasant woman wagged all the brisker. No sooner did she see me than she bounced from her place, c.o.c.ked her _haube_ on the side of her head, stuck her arms akimbo, and fell foul of me.
”'Ah, ha! my dear precious lady! I suppose 'tis Carnival time, since you come masquerading hither like that! Perhaps you've come because you've lost something here, eh? A shawl, perhaps? A very pretty little ladys.h.i.+p, that I _will_ say! Haven't you got a nice enough lord and master of your own at home? Must you befool the poor peasant also? Or if your lawful husband is not enough for you, can't you go and choose another from among the cavaliers of your own rank? You hanker after laying your little stuck-up noddle on my patch-pillow, eh? You ought to be ashamed of yourself!'
”I was dumbfoundered. This face of a fury, with the eyes sticking out of its head, robbed me of all my pluck. In my despair and doubt I looked at Peter.
”He all this time was sitting with his elbows on the table and swallowing one dumpling after another.
”'Is this justice, Peter?' stammered I, half-sobbing; 'will you let me be treated like this?'
”At this he struck the table with his fist a mighty blow and roared at his wife: 'Woman! Shut up! Hold your tongue! Sit down at that table and fill your stomach! I'll speak now.'
”The woman sulked in silence, but, even while her husband was speaking, she could not forbear putting in a word or two here and there, such as: 'She has worn out my dress, too!--I didn't steal that! My lovely chintz dress! How she has rumpled it! Just as if she had been tumbling it about in every pot-house!'
”But Peter spoke very sagely.
”'My lady, I beg pardon! I know what honour is. I was once a soldier. I know my duty. What won't match can't match. A horse and an ox won't draw together. A peasant woman's meet for a peasant, a lady's meet for a gentleman. Now did I ever so much as raise my little finger to your ladys.h.i.+p? You know I didn't. And yet how many times haven't you ruined the b.u.t.ter? You never moistened the maize. The pigs wouldn't eat it because it set their teeth on edge, for you threw them hard raw grain.
This won't do, you know! When the cows calve, who'll be there to see to them? And who is there to clean out the furnace? The mice have gnawed away the sleeves of my jacket, it's all in rags. Besides that, I have got into the way of saying, ”Hie, you Jutka! d'ye hear?” and then she knows very well what her duty is; and when I strike her she makes no bones about it, either. I couldn't live without thras.h.i.+ng her occasionally; it does my back good, which would else grow double; and she always knows how to come round me again.'”
I threw my sketch-book and my palette out of my hand, and flung myself down on my back, I laughed so much. How could I help laughing? Bessy laughed too.
”I can laugh mightily at it now, but situated as I was then, his words were so many lashes. At last I flew into a rage and attacked Peter.
”'Can't you say straight out that Muki Bagotay has bribed you to take back your wife, whom you drove away on his account?'
”'Oh, I humbly beg your pardon, you must not say that I am bribed. I am an upright man. His honour, my lord Bagotay, gave me ten head of oxen as a gift, but he didn't bribe me.'
”My heart was ready to break at these words.
”Ten head of oxen indeed! For the sake of this peasant I had sacrificed my whole existence, the world in which I had hitherto lived, the respect of my acquaintances, my ease and comfort. I had made the earnest resolve to become a peasant woman for his sake, to work, do without things, suffer penury, and when once I had recovered my property, to give it all to him, make him a gentleman according to _his_ notion of a gentleman, and the wretched creature had bartered me for ten oxen!”
I hastened to explain to Bessy that this was really the legally appointed fine for adultery in case the affair came to be settled.
Verboczy[74] says: ”_Raptor solvat decem juvencos._”--”The seducer must pay ten oxen.”
[Footnote 74: The great Hungarian jurist (1460-1541), and one of the most eminent statesmen of his day. His _opus magnum_, ent.i.tled ”Tripart.i.tum opus juris consultudinarii inclyti regni Hungariae,” was first published in 1517.--TR.]
Bessy then proceeded:--
”Peter next began to give me counsels worthy of a patriarch.
”'My lady, I've only one thing to say. Go back to his lords.h.i.+p. G.o.d's my witness that nothing will befall you. Say now, Jutka--come, on your soul be honest--have I so much as touched you with my little finger since you came back? His lords.h.i.+p, too, knows all about it. He will close one eye.
Let's look upon the matter as if he and I had been wrestling together, and first one had had a fall and then the other. One box on the ears deserves another. So it is among men of honour!'”
”Oh, don't make me laugh so, or I cannot go on sketching!” said I to Bessy, with the tears in my eyes.
”I don't know what you can find to laugh at, I could cry for vexation even now.”
”Why, that of itself is enough to make one laugh!”