"If only lightning would smite the one and the other," he said, striking the sidewalk with his cane. "In addition, everything is closed, not only the restaurants in the hotels, but even the pharmacies, in which in an extreme case, vin de coca or alcohol can be procured. The pharmacies are striking! We have lived to see that! The doctors also ought to strike and then the grave-diggers will unwillingly have to strike also. May the devil seize all! At home I have not a single bottle; so throughout the entire night I will not be able to sleep a wink and to-morrow I will be as if taken off the cross--"
"Come with us," said Gronski, "perhaps we may find a bottle of something and black coffee."
"You have saved not only my life but that of my 'associate,' especially if two bottles are found."
"We will seek. But what kind of associate are you speaking of?"
"True, you yet know nothing. I will relate it over a glass."
It was not far to Gronski's residence, so soon they were seated around a table on which was found a bottle of noble Chambertin and a coffee-percolator with black coffee, steaming in a delicious manner.
Swidwicki regained his spirits.
"Those ladies," he said, "are real angels, and for the reason that it is there, as if in Paradise, where happiness consists in gazing upon eternal brightness and listening to the archangel choir."
Here he addressed Krzycki:
"I observed that this suffices for you and Gronski--but for me it is absolutely too little."