Miklós Bánffy - They Were Found Wanting

From the Parliament building to Dinora’s was only a matter of a few hundred yards. By the time he arrived Boros had come to a decision.

Abady had neatly avoided him and this could not be accepted. He absolutely had to catch him and force him to shake hands where everyone could see. If he could do this all would be well, for it would be the equivalent of giving satisfaction, almost of an acknowledgement that Boros was blameless. If he did not shake hands then he must be challenged to a duel. That would perhaps be best, for a duel on such a serious matter would solve everything. When the legal year closed there was always calm for a few weeks. So it would be if he managed to shoot Abady, for people were such cowards that no one would blame him. And if the opposite occurred … well, that too would be a solution.

He rang for the lift attendant and as he went up he counted the floors, each marked by a faint clanking sound as he passed … two, three, four, five. His own flat was on the sixth floor, right at the top. When the lift gates were opened he looked first up and then down through the mesh of the lift shaft. They had come up in seconds — and yet it was a long way down.

Balint went to Transylvania for ten days, three of which he spent at Denestornya, two in the mountains, and the rest of the time at Kolozsvar so as to see Adrienne who had to pass through the town and stopped there just so that they could have a few hours together.

He returned to Budapest by the morning express and at the station found two of his acquaintances who were travelling by the same train. They were Count Adam Alvinczy, father of the four Alvinczy boys, and Tamas Laczok. Alvinczy seemed worried, as indeed he was for his son Farkas who was now in Parliament and had got himself so into debt that his father was going to Budapest to see what could be done to settle the problem.

Laczok was in radiant good humour.

‘ Salut! ’ cried Laczok as soon as he saw Balint approaching, and then explained that he too was on his way to the capital to deal with ‘ une énorme affaire ’ which he would explain as soon as they were settled in the train.

‘I found out,’ he began, ‘that the Minister of Agriculture is the final authority on all that concerns the affairs of community properties in the country districts’ and so he was now on his way to the Ministry. Even though Abady — ‘ mon jeune ami ’ — seemed disinclined to have any part in exposing the scandal of the settlement of the lawsuit against the Laczok Timber Company he, Tamas Laczok, was not the man to give up so easily. All right, it was possible that Boros had won the first round, had managed to have himself cleared of any underhand dealings by the Law Society’s investigation and had even brought a suit for slander against the newspaper that had published the allegations against him; so he would now have to be tackled in a different way. This time Laczok would go direct to the Minister and demand that he send inspectors to the community concerned and take over its administration. If this happened then someone would be sure to talk. ‘Here,’ shouted Laczok, ‘here are all the details they need. Tous les documents, mon cher! Tous les documents! ’

Balint gazed at the squat little man with wry amusement. He was a bizarre figure, sitting there in the railway carriage, bolt upright like a Chinese statuette with long pointed beard and bald head. His slanting eyes glistened with eagerness and expectation and from time to time he slapped at his briefcase with his short fat arms and cried, ‘ Mon frère Jeno, il va en crever — my brother Jeno will do a bust!’

My brother will do a bust! This was the only thing that really mattered to him: My brother will do a bust!

Once again the capital was bombarded with disquieting news from abroad. Troops were sent to the southern border; and, even more seriously, the government declared the imposition of censorship.

In Russia the foreign minister Izvolsky told the Austro-Hungarian ambassador that though his masters were at one with the other great powers they still wanted an international conference to discuss the Bosnian annexation. Hope flared in Belgrade where everyone clamoured for war.

The Ballplatz replied by leaking the fact that Serbia would soon be issued with an ultimatum; but the Serbs went on mobilizing just the same.

The Monarchy found itself on the threshold of war.

While the storm clouds gathered both the Austrian and the Hungarian Parliaments found themselves beset with other problems. In Vienna the recent concessions to Budapest concerning the administration of the joint armies were violently attacked, and this despite the fact that both the foreign minister Aehrenthal and the war minister agreed that they were a good basis for the modernizing of the army. Behind these attacks stood the sinister figure of the Heir to the throne. Franz Ferdinand did nothing himself; but it was his intimate friends who provoked all these attacks, and they did it on his orders.

In Budapest parliamentary business was in a turmoil with everything turned upside-down. The committee considering the banking question threw out all the proposals put before it and this was taken as a triumph by the men surrounding Justh, who did not even try to conceal their joy.

Those radical followers of Hollo and Barra stamped about the corridors of the House like generals after a great victory and if their footsteps did not resound it was only because the carpets were so thick. The government was powerless and only remained in office because of the foreign situation.

This was the atmosphere that Abady found in the corridors of the House. Here he found the scent of triumph too strong to be supported, and so he retired to the almost deserted drawing-room.

For almost half an hour he allowed himself to be bored to distraction by Isti Kamuthy who mouthed endless political platitudes at him — all, of course, from what Isti believed to be the soundest of English sources — until he suddenly noticed that Zsigmond Boros had just entered the room by a door on the opposite side. Out of the corner of his eye Balint saw the lawyer look around and at once realized that he was probably looking for him. Indeed he started to walk towards him in a most decided manner.

Balint took out his watch, glanced at it and turned quickly to Isti. ‘I must run! Servus! ’ he said quickly and turning away left the room abruptly. Little Isti was much put out as he was right in the middle of what he considered to be a very clever sentence indeed.

THAT AFTERNOON two Members of Parliament came to call upon Abady. They were well-known seconds who were always employed when any matters of honour were concerned and had acted at the duel when old Keglevitch had been killed by a thrust to the heart.

‘On behalf of our friend Zsigmond Boros,’ said the elder of the two, ‘we have come to demand satisfaction. Our friend could not help noticing that your Lordship intentionally and most offensively rose and turned away when our friend was about to greet him this morning. According to our friend this was not the first time that such a thing has occurred but until this morning our friend could not be sure that your Lordship’s apparent attitude was intentional. Today, however, it was so obvious as to leave no room for doubt.’