A few days later the betrothal party took place in fact. Marynia was
there; for Pani Kraslavski, who liked Plavitski, whose relatives were
known to her, did not avoid association with him as she did with the
Bigiels. Mashko brought such of his acquaintances as had well-known
names. They had monocles on their eyes, and their hair parted in
the middle; for the greater part very young, and mainly not very
quick-witted. Among them were the five brothers Vyj, who were called
Mizio, Kizio, Bizio, Brelochek, and Tatus. They were nicknamed the five
sleeping brothers, since they felt the impulses of life in their legs
exclusively, and were active only in the carnival, but became perfectly
torpid, at least in a mental sense, during Lent. Bukatski loved them,
and amused himself with them. Baron Kot was there, who, because he had
heard something from some one of a certain ancient Kot of Dembna, added
always, when he was presented, "of Dembna," and who always answered
everything that was said to him with: "_Quelle drôle d'histoire!_"
Mashko was on the footing of _thou_ with all these, though he treated
them with a certain species of disregard, as well as Kopovski,--a young
man with a splendid ideal head, and also splendid eyes without thought.
Pan Stanislav and Kresovski represented the category of Mashko's more
clever friends. Pani Kraslavski had invited a number of ladies with
daughters, among whom the five brothers circled carelessly and coolly,
and whose maiden hearts fluttered at the approach of Kopovski, caring
less for his mental resemblance to Hamlet, resting on this,--that if
not he, his brain might be put into "a nutshell." A number of dignified
bald heads completed the company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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