‘I know.’
‘Well? Can you settle … or not?’
Laszlo hesitated for a moment, his elbow pressed tightly against the wad in his pocket.
‘No,’ he said. ‘I can’t.’ He looked Szent-Gyorgyi firmly in the face. Count Neszti let his eye-glass drop. He lifted a hand to his face and twirled his long drooping moustaches. Not a muscle moved, his features might have been carved from granite.
‘So you can’t! I thought as much.’ He, too, paused for a moment. Then he passed a hand over the smooth marble-like surface of his bald skull before asking: ‘How much is it altogether?’
‘Seventy-two thousand on word of honour and five thousand signed for.’
‘And what do you intend to do about it?’ said Count Neszti with ice in his voice. Laszlo continued to look the older man in the eye, but he did not answer or move, only his fingers imperceptibly caressed the money in his pocket.
There was silence for a few minutes. Then Szent-Gyorgyi put his monocle once more to his eye and, his words clipped hard like the clanking of a rusty cog-wheel, he said: ‘I shall settle the debt. For your part you will immediately inform the Casino of your resignation as a member. I will arrange that this is accepted without query. You will do this in writing. There is paper on the table.’ and he pointed with the stem of his pipe to a writing desk that stood in front of the window.
Gyeroffy did as he was told. He walked over to the desk and when he had finished writing and handed the paper to his host, he tried to stammer out his thanks, saying that naturally as soon as he could he … Count Neszti interrupted him: ‘I care nothing for all that! And please do not thank me. I am not doing this for you but because I do not like to see disgrace fall on someone bearing a noble name like yours. That is the only reason.’ The monocle dropped from his eye: for Count Neszti the matter was settled, the case finished and there was nothing more to be said. He did not put out his hand when Laszlo rose to say goodbye and the latter knew that his punishment had started.
What would he have thought if he’d known that the money was in my pocket all the time, thought Laszlo, smiling in cynical self-mockery as he found his way out through the garden to the street.
When Laszlo arrived at the jewellers he was told that Mr Bacherach was in the shop and would be with him in a moment. Then he was shown into the room lined with showcases where Fanny had arranged to pawn her pearls. He sat down in the same armchair that had been offered to the Countess Beredy. After a short wait the fat bespectacled little jeweller came in and asked who it was that he had the honour to serve. Laszlo gave his name.
‘And how can I serve your Lordship?’ asked Bacherach, seating himself at the chair behind the table.
‘Before leaving for Italy Countess Beredy entrusted me with the sum which you had advanced her on the security of her pearls. Eighty-six thousand crowns, was it not?’
‘That is so,’ said Bacherach, counting the banknotes that Gyeroffy had placed on the table. When he had finished he said: ‘What does her Ladyship wish me to do with the pearls?’
‘The Countess would like you to keep them in safe custody until she returns. Then she will send round for them. In the meantime, however, please give me a paper confirming that the Countess’s account has been settled and that the pearls are at her disposal any time she might wish to collect them. Naturally the paper will mention only Countess Beredy’s name. Mine should not appear.’
A discreet smile hovered for a moment over the merchant’s fat face. Then he bowed slightly, rose, and said: ‘Certainly, your Lordship. It will be done at once!’ He hurried out of the room and in a few minutes was back with a letter, which he signed in Laszlo’s presence before putting on the firm’s official stamp and handing it over.
Laszlo went straight to the post office and sent off Bacherach’s receipt to Fanny by registered letter.
With the words ‘It is finished’ ringing in his head, Laszlo stepped out, head held high, and walked briskly home. As he passed the Casino, on the other side of the street, he looked across defiantly thinking that at last he had rejoined the ranks of the just.
Back in his little apartment, which was now empty of nearly all his things, he looked around to make sure that nothing had been forgotten. From the wall he took down a hand-coloured photograph of his father that he had brought from Kozard and laid it in a suitcase that had not yet been closed. Then he thought he must write some line to Fanny for good manners required at least that. He had no writing paper so he took a visiting card from his case and wrote on it: ‘Thank you for everything!’ It was enough. It said all that was necessary. Then he addressed it to the Beredy Palais so that she would find it on her return.
Now it was nearly dark. Laszlo looked at his watch and saw that it was already after five. He had decided to take the six o’clock train, hoping that he would see no one that he knew and so would be able to travel alone. He called down to the hall porter to carry down his luggage and summon a carriage and, while waiting, went over to the window embrasure.
The trees in the Museum garden were still bare. Above them the sloping slate roof of the Kollonich Palais could be clearly seen rising high above the corner of Sandor Street, the long elegant lines emphasized by the copper ribbing that had been placed every few metres and now glowed in the light of the street-lamps. The roof was cluttered with many chimneys which could only be seen from high up and far away. Laszlo gazed at that enchanted house, now for ever beyond his reach, and he thought back to the evening when he had returned from Simonvasar delirious with happiness and how on that evening he had stood at the same window and looked for a long time at the same distant roofs. Then the boulevards had been illuminated with a thousand brilliant lights, lights that were set in long straight rows and had seemed like the symbol of his triumph. Funeral torches now! he thought grimly. Down below the brakes of a tram screeched like an animal in pain …
Chapter Ten
AFTER KOSSUTH’S AND ANDRASSY’S NEGOTIATIONS with the King’s representatives a new coalition government had been formed under the leadership of Dr Wekerle. Then in the first week of May there was a general election. A large majority was won by the candidates of the 1848 Party and, along with other members of the old opposition, the liberal party of Count Tisza was practically wiped out, only a few of his old supporters obtaining seats as independent members. The representatives of the ethnic minorities increased their numbers to twenty-four, but this signified little in a house of four hundred and fify-three seats. Among the successful candidates from Transylvania was Uncle Ambrus, old Bartokfay, Farkas Alvinczy, Bela Varju, Dr Szigmond Boros, who was appointed a junior minister, and young Kamuthy, who just managed to scrape in a few weeks later as a result of a controverted election which had to be re-held.
Parliament reassembled in a cheerful mood. After the Royal Decree announcing that the new Parliament’s first duty was to work out and put into effect a programme of universal suffrage, the Speaker’s opening address, which spoke of the ‘sovereignty of the people’ had no more effect than the distant rumbling of a thunder storm that had passed. Peace had been declared: now it was time to get down to work to catch up and complete all the essential business of government which had been so neglected during the unconstitutional period of Fejervary’s government. There were national commercial agreements to be ratified, defence and other national estimates to be voted and, in the counties and districts, order had to be restored and the confusion resulting from the ‘Guardsman’ government’s appointment of unacceptable officials, cleaned up: for it was essential that these unpopular ‘lackeys’ should be weeded out, like tares among the corn. Joska Kendy, who now became Prefect in Kukullo, set about the task with undisguised delight and vigour, so much so that his zeal rivalled even that of Ordung in Maros-Torda, who was now busy finishing off his old enemy, Beno Peter Balog.