St. Peter's Umbrella Part 35

He must speak to him first? Then he must have something to say which could not be said after they had exchanged rings! Veronica again felt a weight on her heart. Gyuri got up discontentedly from his place next to Veronica, whose fingers began to play nervously with the work she had in her hands.

"Come across to my room then."

Gyuri's room was at the other end of the house, which was built in the shape of an L. It used to be the schoolroom before the new school was built. (Widow Adamecz had learnt her A B C there.) The priest who had been there before Father Janos had divided the room into two parts by a nicely painted wooden part.i.tion, and of one half he had made a spare bedroom, of the other a storeroom.

Veronica was feeling as miserable as she could, and her one wish at that moment was to hear the two gentlemen's conversation, for everything depended on that. Some demon who had evidently never been to school, and had never learned that it was dishonorable to listen at doors or walls, whispered to her:

"Run quickly, Veronica, into the storeroom, and if you press your ear to the wall, you will be able to hear what they say."

Off went Veronica like a shot. It is incredible what an amount of honey a demon of that description can put into his words; he was capable of persuading this well-educated girl to take her place among the pickled cuc.u.mbers, basins of lard, and sacks of potatoes, in order to listen to a conversation which was not meant for her ears.

Not a sound was to be heard in the storeroom but the dripping of the fat from a side of bacon hanging from the rafters, and which the great heat there was causing it to melt. Some of it even fell on her pretty dress, but what did she care for that just then?

"So you have found out all about the umbrella," she heard Sztolarik say, "but have you seen it yet?"

"Why should I?" asked Gyuri. "I cannot touch its contents till after the wedding."

"Why not sooner?"

"Because, for various reasons, I do not wish the story of the umbrella known."

"For instance?"

"First of all, because Father Janos would be the laughing-stock of the place."

"Why do you trouble your head about the priest?"

"Secondly, because it would give Veronica reason to think I am only marrying her for the sake of the umbrella."

"But she will know it later on in any case."

"I shall never tell her."

"Have you any other reasons?"

"Oh, yes. I dare say they would not even give me the check; it is probably not made out in any particular name; so how am I to prove to them that it is mine? It really belongs to the person who has it in his possession. And perhaps they would not even give me the girl, for if her fortune is as large as we think it, she can find as many husbands as she has fingers on her hands."

Veronica felt giddy. It was as though they were driving nails into her flesh. She could not quite understand all they were talking about--of umbrellas, receipts, large fortunes. What fortune? But this much she had begun to understand, that she was only the means to some end.

"Well, well," began Sztolarik again after a short pause, "the affair seems to be pretty entangled at present, but there is still worse to come."

"What more can come?" asked Gyuri in an uncertain voice.

"Don't do anything at present. Let us find out first of all whether you love the girl."

Poor little Veronica was trembling like a leaf in her hiding-place. She shut her eyes like a criminal before his execution, with a sort of undefined feeling that the blow would be less painful so. What would he answer?

"I think I love her," answered Gyuri, again in that uncertain voice.

"She is so pretty, don't you think so?"

"Of course. But the question is, would you in other circ.u.mstances have asked her to marry you? Answer frankly!"

"I should never have thought of such a thing."

A sob was heard in the next room, and then a noise as though some pieces of furniture had been thrown down.

Sztolarik listened for a few moments, and then, pointing to the wall, asked:

"Do you know what is on the other side?"

"I think it is the storeroom."

"I thought I heard some one sob."

"Perhaps one of the servants saw a mouse!"

And that is how a tragedy looks from the next room when the wall is thin. If there is a thick wall it does not even seem so bad. One of the servants had seen a mouse, or a heart had been broken; for who was to know that despair and fright only have one sound to express them?

Veronica, with her illusions dispersed, ran out into the open air; she wished to hear no more, only to get away from that hated place, for she felt suffocating; away, away, as far as she could go.... And this all seemed, from the next room, as though Widow Adamecz or Hanka had seen a mouse. But, however it may have seemed to them, they had forgotten the whole thing in half a minute.

"You say it would never have occurred to you to marry her. So you had better not hurry with the wedding. Let us first see the umbrella and its contents, and then we shall see what is to be done next."

Gyuri went on quietly smoking his cigarette and thought:

"Sztolarik is getting old. Fancy making such a fuss about it!"

"I have thought it well over," he went on aloud, "and there is no other way of managing it; I must marry the girl."

Sztolarik got up from his chair, and came and stood in front of the young man, fixing his eyes on him.

"But supposing you could get at your inheritance without marrying Veronica?"

Gyuri could not help smiling.

"Why, I have just said," he exclaimed impatiently, "that it cannot be done, but even if it could, I would not do it, for I feel as though she also had a right to the fortune, as it has been in her possession so long, and Providence seems to have sent it direct to her."

"But supposing you could get at it through Veronica?"

"That seems out of the question too."

"Really? Well, now listen to me, Gyuri, for I have something to tell you."

"I am listening."

But his thoughts were elsewhere, as he drummed on the table with his fingers.

"Well," went on Sztolarik, "when I went in to Huszak's this morning to buy the two rings you wanted sent by the messenger (for I had no intention of coming here myself then), Huszak was not in the shop, so the rabbit-mouthed young man waited on me. You know him?"