"On the word of a gentleman
you shall have the money before to-morrow night."
"A good riddance of both of them," snarled Akulina, as the Count lifted
his hat and then, his head bent more than was his wont, passed out of the
shop with the remains of the poor Gigerl under his arm.
CHAPTER IV.
The Count had no precise object in view when he hurriedly left the shop
with the parcel containing the broken doll. What he most desired for the
moment was to withdraw himself from the storm of Akulina's abuse, seeing
that he had no means of checking the torrent, nor of exacting satisfaction
for the insults received. However he might have acted had the aggressor
been a man, he was powerless when attacked by a woman, and he was aware
that he had followed the only course which had in it anything of dignity
and self-respect. To stand and bandy words and epithets of abuse would
have been worse than useless, to treat the tobacconist like a gentleman
and to hold him responsible for his wife's language would have been more
than absurd. So the Count took the remains of the puppet and went on his
way.
He was not, however, so superior to good and bad treatment as not to feel
deeply wounded and thoroughly roused to anger. Perhaps, if he had been
already in possession of the fortune and dignity which he expected on the
morrow, he might have smiled contemptuously at the virago's noisy wrath,
feeling nothing and caring even less what she felt towards him. But he had
too long been poor and wretched to bear with equanimity any reference to
his wretchedness or his poverty, and he was too painfully conscious of the
weight of outward circumstances in determining men's judgments of their
fellows not to be stung by the words that had been so angrily applied to
him.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67