"The old lady said that the summons to the count was ready, which does
not concern me," said Augustinovich. "She has even visited the count,
but found only the countess, who pleased her. The countess was much
frightened when she learned the object of the old lady's visit. I asked
Pani Visberg why she claimed a miserable two thousand when she
represented herself as the wife of a Croesus. She answered that her late
husband's name was Cleophas, not Croesus. 'If it were mine,' said she, 'I
surely would not annoy them, but all that money belongs to my child.'
Then I pressed the hand of that child under the table, with real
feeling. I was simply moved--word of honor, I was moved. When going, I
kissed the old lady's hand. The young lady's name is Malinka--a pretty
name, Malinka, though the point is not in this, whether her name is
pretty or ugly--Why art thou so pale, Yosef?"
"I am not entirely well, and I cannot sleep. I fell asleep while
waiting for thee. Give me a glass of tea."
Augustinovich poured out the tea, and lighting his pipe lay on the bed.
Yosef pushed an armchair up to the bureau, and taking a pen began to
write.
He soon stopped, however. Thoughts crowded into his head; he leaned
back in the chair and gave them free course. Another man would have
dreamed. Yosef collected and summed up his own past; he thought over the
conditions in which he was then, he cast up the future. Regarding this
future, it was difficult for him to remain in the rôle of a cool
reasoner. The words "That is the young doctor, papa," came to his memory
involuntarily. To be a doctor and to some extent a high-priest of
science; to rule on one side by reason, on the other by significance,
property, reputation,--Yosef had not become indifferent yet to
reputation,--to attract glances, rouse laughter, win hearts--Here he
remembered Helena. In the region of feeling he was not free now to
choose. He felt bound; still he would like to see eyes turning to him,
and the smile of the maiden's lips, and hear the words so prettily
whispered, "That is the young doctor." For the first time he could not
free himself of the thought that Helena might be a hindrance to his
campaign of advancement. He determined to settle with that thought. Her
education was not in the way, she was educated; she was twenty-one years
of age, he twenty-four--the difference, though too small, did not
constitute a hindrance. What reasons could he have to fear that Helena
might be a weight on him some time? Conscience declared that the first
cause was his own vanity. He knew women little, and he wanted to know
them much and to rule them. But there were other considerations which
Yosef did not admit. He loved too little. In his soul lay enormous
capitals of feeling; he had barely offered a small part of them in the
name of Helena. He bore within him a dim consciousness of his powers;
that foreboding deprived him of rest. He wanted to reach the foundation
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