"Indeed!" replied the mandatar, coldly, taking a seat and ordering a bottle of wine. "Between you and me?"
"Yes, unmistakably," cried Mr. de Bazanski, coming nearer and taking his place opposite the mandatar. "A striking likeness in fact. It so occupied my mind that I quite forgot I was thirsty, and, indeed, for the matter of that, I am of too sociable a turn to have a glass by myself." This was true enough, for Thaddy never had any drink except in company. They knew better at the cellars than to give him anything that was not ordered and paid for by his friends.
Mr. Hajek smiled, requesting the waiter to bring a second glass. "A striking likeness, you were saying?"
"Most striking, sir, and unmistakable! Just look at me--what is it I have come to? I am an old officer, to be sure, who will give proof yet of the stuff he is made of. But what of this? I was thinking of my happy youth, and how from the battlements of our princely castle in Lithuania I, with a telescope, would scan our broad domain; forty-nine villages I could count, and they all were situated on our lands. Yes, ours was a princely family, and now, alas, I may not even confess to the name I was born to, I----"
"Yes, yes, I know," interrupted the mandatar; "besides, I was aware that this is Tuesday."
But Thaddy was not the man to be disconcerted. "Of course, this is Tuesday," he assented, smilingly. "I was going to add--who is to blame that I am a stranger now to my princely heritage, if not my wicked relatives? And who is it that, at the present moment, is a sore trouble to you, if not this wicked peasantry of Zulawce? Is it not a strange and striking similarity?"
"Very striking," said Hajek. "Then you have heard about affairs at Zulawce?"
"Of course I have," cried Bazanski; "why the town is full of it." And the ex-officer waxed hot with excitement. "You would scarcely believe it," he cried, "but there are those, actually, who take this cut-throat's part against you--respectable people--nay, even Poles, I am ashamed to say!"
"Who, for instance?" inquired the mandatar, apparently unconcerned, but his heart was beating in spite of him.
"Well, there is that old demagogue, who ought to know better, being a lawyer--Dr. Starkowski, I mean--to begin with. This very morning we were sitting here, some twenty of us, and some one started the matter. My stars, you should have heard him! 'Gentlemen,' he said, quite solemnly, as though he were on his oath, 'I know this Taras; he is the most unselfish, the noblest man I have ever met, and filled with a passion for justice which would grace a king. And that this man, with the views he holds, had nothing left but to turn hajdamak, must make every honest man blush for our country. It is my opinion that this noble-hearted fellow has been morally murdered, and his murderer is the mandatar of Zulawce.' And the others, so far from contradicting him, clamoured for more. 'Tell us, Doctor, tell us all about it,' they cried. And he gave them a long rigmarole of a story about a field, and perjury, and what not; and when he had finished--'Humph,' said the others, 'why, if it is so, Mr. Hajek is just a blackguard.' 'He is,' affirmed the brazen-faced lawyer. Such is the world!"