THE DELUGE-3
1948 Words
«I did not; but I bewailed with hot tears my benefactor when I learned of his death from those rustics who came from this region to me. He was a sincere friend, almost a brother, of my late father. Of course it is well known to you that four years ago he came to us at Orsha. Then he promised me your ladyship, and showed a portrait about which I sighed in the night-time. I wished to come sooner, but war is not a mother: she makes matches for men with death only.»
This bold speech confused the lady somewhat. Wishing to change the subject, she said, «Then you have not seen Lyubich yet?»
«There will be time for that. My first service is here; and here the dearest inheritance, which I wish to receive first. But you turned from the hearth, so that to this moment I have not been able to look you in the eye--that›s the way! Turn, and I will stand next the hearth; that›s the way!»
Thus speaking, the daring soldier seized by the hand Olenka,[8] who did not expect such an act, and brought her face toward the fire, turning her like a top. She was still more confused, and covering her eyes with her long lashes, stood abashed by the light and her own beauty. Kmita released her at last, and struck himself on the doublet.
«As God is dear to me, a beauty! I›ll have a hundred Masses said for my benefactor because he left you to me. When the betrothal?»
«Not yet awhile; I am not yours yet,» said Olenka.
«But you will be, even if I have to burn this house! As God lives, I thought the portrait flattered. I see that the painter aimed high, but missed. A thousand lashes to such an artist, and stoves to paint, not beauties, with which eyes are feasted! Oh, ‹tis a delight to be the heir to such an inheritance, may the bullets strike me!»
«My late grandfather told me that you were very hot-headed.»
«All are that way with us in Smolensk; not like your Jmud people. One, two! and it must be as we want; if not, then death.»
Olenka laughed, and said with a voice now more confident, raising her eyes to the cavalier, «Then it must be that Tartars dwell among you?»
«All one! but you are mine by the will of parents and by your heart.»
«By my heart? That I know not yet.»
«Should you not be, I would thrust myself with a knife!»
«You say that laughing. But we are still in the servants› hall; I beg you to the reception-room. After a long road doubtless supper will be acceptable. I beg you to follow me.»
Here Olenka turned to Panna Kulvyets. «Auntie, dear, come with us.»
The young banneret glanced quickly. «Aunt?» he inquired,--»whose aunt?»
«Mine,--Panna Kulvyets.»
«Then she is mine!» answered he, going to kiss her hand. «I have in my company an officer named Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus. Is he not a relative?»
«He is of the same family,» replied the old maid, with a courtesy.
«A good fellow, but a whirlwind like myself,» added Kmita.
Meanwhile a boy appeared with a light. They went to the antechamber, where Pan Andrei removed his shuba; then they passed to the reception-room.
Immediately after their departure the spinners gathered in a close circle, and one interrupted another, talking and making remarks. The stately young man pleased them greatly; therefore they did not spare words on him, vying with one another in praises.
«Light shines from him,» said one; «when he came I thought he was a king›s son.»
«And he has lynx eyes, so that he cuts with them,» said another; «do not cross such a man.»
«That is worst of all,» said a third.
«He met the lady as a betrothed. It is easily seen that she pleased him greatly, for whom has she not pleased?»
«But he is not worse than she, never fear! Could you get his equal, you would go even to Orsha, though likely that is at the end of the world.»
«Ah, lucky lady!»
«It is always best for the rich in the world. Ei, ei, that›s gold, not a knight.»
«The Patsuneli girls say that that cavalry captain who is stopping with old Pakosh is a handsome cavalier.»
«I have not seen him; but how compare him with Pan Kmita! Such another as Pan Kmita surely there is not in the world!»
«It›s down!» cried the man of Jmud on a sudden, when something broke again in the mill.
«Go out, shaggy head, with thy freaks! Give us peace, for we cannot hear.--True, true; hard to find better than Pan Kmita in the whole world; surely in Kyedani there is none such.»
«Dream of one like him!»
«May his like come in a dream!»
In such fashion did the girls talk among themselves in the servants› hall. Meanwhile in the dining-room the table was laid in all haste, while in the drawing-room Panna Aleksandra conversed face to face with Kmita, for Aunt Kulvyets had gone to bustle about the supper.
Pan Andrei did not remove his gaze from Olenka, and his eyes shot sparks more and more every moment; at last he said,--
«There are men to whom land is dearer than all things else; there are others who chase after plunder in war, others love horses; but I would not give you for any treasure. As God lives, the more I look the more I wish to marry; so that even if it were to-morrow-- Oh, that brow,--just as if painted with burned cork!»
«I hear that some use such strange things, but I am not of that kind.»
«And eyes as from heaven! From confusion, words fail me.»
«You are not greatly confused, if in my presence you can be so urgent that I am wonder-stricken.»
«That is our way in Smolensk,--to go boldly at women as we do into battle. You must, my queen, grow accustomed to this, for thus will it ever be.»
«You must put it aside, for thus it cannot be.»
«Perhaps I may yield, may I be slain! Believe, believe me not, but with gladness would I bend the skies for you. For you, my queen, I am ready to learn other manners; for I know myself that I am a simple soldier, I have lived more in camps than in chambers of castles.»
«Oh, that harms nothing, for my grandfather was a soldier; but I give thanks for the good-will,» said Olenka; and her eyes looked with such sweetness on Pan Andrei that his heart melted like wax in a moment, and he answered,--
«You will lead me on a thread.»
«Ah, you are not like those who are led on threads; to do that is most difficult with men who are unsteady.»
Kmita showed in a smile teeth as white as a wolf›s teeth, «How is that?» asked he. «Are the rods few that the fathers broke on me in the monastery to bring me to steadiness and make me remember various fair maxims for guidance in life--»
«And which one do you remember best?»
«›When in love, fall at the feet,›--in this fashion.»
When he had spoken, Kmita was already on his knees. The lady screamed, putting her feet under the table.
«For God›s sake! they did not teach that in the monastery. Leave off, or I shall be angry--my aunt will come this minute--»
Still on his knees, he raised his head and looked into her eyes. «Let a whole squadron of aunts come; I shall not forbid their pleasure.»
«But stand up!»
«I am standing.»
«Sit down!»
«I am sitting.»
«You are a traitor, a Judas!»
«Not true, for when I kiss ‹tis with sincerity,--will you be convinced?»
«You are a serpent!»
Panna Aleksandra laughed, however, and a halo of youth and gladness came from her. His nostrils quivered like the nostrils of a young steed of noble blood.
«Ai! ai!» said he. «What eyes, what a face! Save me, all ye saints, for I cannot keep away!»
«There is no reason to summon the saints. You were absent four years without once looking in here; sit still now!»
«But I knew only the counterfeit. I will have that painter put in tar and then in feathers, and scourge him through the square of Upita. I will tell all in sincerity,--forgive, if it please you; if not, take my head. I thought to myself when looking at that portrait: ‹A pretty little rogue, pretty; but there is no lack of pretty ones in the world. I have time.› My late father urged me hither, but I had always one answer: ‹I have time! The little wife will not vanish; maidens go not to war and do not perish.› I was not opposed at all to the will of my father, God is my witness; but I wanted first to know war and feel it on my own body. This moment I see my folly. I might have married and gone to war afterward; and here every delight was waiting for me. Praise be to God that they did not hack me to death! Permit me to kiss your hand.»
«Better, I›ll not permit.»
«Then I will not ask. In Orsha we say, ‹Ask; but if they don›t give, take it thyself.›»
Here Pan Andrei clung to the hand of the lady and began to kiss it; and the lady did not resist too greatly, lest she might exhibit ill-will.
Just then Panna Kulvyets came in. When she saw what was going on, she raised her eyes. That intimacy did not please her, but she dared not scold. She gave invitation to supper.
Both went to the supper-room, holding each the other›s hand as if they were related. In the room stood a table covered, and on it an abundance of all kinds of food, especially choice smoked meats and a mouldy thick bottle of strength-giving wine. It was pleasant for the young people with each other, gladsome, vivacious. The lady had supped already; therefore Kmita sat alone, and began to eat with animation equal to that with which he had just been conversing.
Olenka looked at him with sidelong glance, glad that he was eating and drinking. When he had appeased his first hunger, she began again to inquire,--
«Then you are not direct from Orsha?»
«Scarcely do I know whence I come,--here to-day, tomorrow in another place. I prowled near the enemy as a wolf around sheep, and what was possible to seize I seized.»
«And how had you daring to meet such a power, before which the grand hetman himself had to yield?»
«How had I daring? I am ready for all things, such is the nature within me.»
«That is what my grandfather said. Great luck that you were not killed!»
«Ai, they covered me with cap and with hand as a bird is covered on the nest; but I, whom they covered, sprang out and bit them in another place. I made it so bitter for them that there is a price on my head-- A splendid half-goose!»
«In the name of the Father and the Son!» cried Olenka, with unfeigned wonder, gazing with homage on that young man who in the same moment mentions the price on his head and the half-goose. «Had you many troops for defence?»
«I had, of course, my poor dragoons,--very excellent men, but in a month they were all kicked to bits. Then I went with volunteers whom I gathered wherever I could without question. Good fellows for battle, but knave upon knave! Those who have not perished already will sooner or later be meat for the crows.»
Pan Andrei laughed, emptied his goblet of wine, and added: «Such plunderers you have not seen yet. May the hangman light them! Officers,--all nobles from our parts, men of family, worthy people, but against almost every one of them is a sentence of outlawry. They are now in Lyubich, for where else could I send them?»
- Writer
