Miklós Bánffy - They Were Found Wanting

When they arrived at her door Adrienne would not let him in.

‘No! Not today! Not today!’

‘Why? What is it? Darling Addy, what silliness is this?’ said Uzdy, all honey and sweetness. Then, abruptly, he changed his tone and with all his old menace he asked slowly, ‘Any special reason today?’

Adrienne longed to tell him how much she loathed him but she knew from experience that any such words only excited him the more. She knew that any opposition only whetted his appetite, provoking his desire and stirring up his conquering instincts. Accordingly she merely said in a cold voice, ‘None. I just don’t want it today, not today. That’s all!’

Uzdy towered above her, his hand clenched into a fist against the door, but Adrienne stepped quickly back, pushed him away with a sudden thrust against his chest, closed the door and locked it from inside.

This happened in the fraction of a second.

Inside Adrienne leaned back against the door, her heart beating wildly as she wondered whether in his rage he would hammer on the door and try to break it down. But nothing happened. Both remained motionless, she in the dark room and he in the corridor divided from each other as if by a wall. For a long time neither moved. Adrienne could just hear the sounds of old Maier closing the main door of the house and then his footsteps on the gravel outside as he crossed the outer court. Then once again there was silence. Neither moved …

A long time later Uzdy turned and went away. Perhaps the fulfilment he had found that afternoon had deflected his usual determination but, whatever it was, he went and he went so softly that the only sound Adrienne could hear was the gentle creaking of the wooden stair that led to his rooms below.

When Adrienne heard this noise, which had always before been the herald of such horror for her when he was coming to her room, she was filled with a sense of triumph and her amber-coloured eyes opened wide with joy at the knowledge that, at last, and even if only for once, she had been able to protect herself from his hated love-making.

She was as dazed as a slave unexpectedly set free.

For a long time Adrienne could not sleep. She lay still and triumphant in that great wide bed where she had so often cried herself to sleep, humiliated and defiled among the ravaged sheets, and the sense of her victory kept her awake until, at long last, as the cocks were already crowing, she feel into a deep untroubled sleep.

Abady did not leave Almasko as early as he had planned. It was about nine o’clock when he strapped up his bag ready to return to the forest, but even then he was hanging back hoping against hope to see Addy again, even if only to exchange a word or two and to arrange when they should next meet. Still hesitating, he went out into the forecourt, moving slowly towards the circle of lawn in the centre. All at once Adrienne was beside him, cool and radiant, her eyes bright and shining.

‘I’m coming with you,’ she said. ‘We have to talk.’

When they had gone only a few steps a window from the corridor was flung open and Uzdy appeared. Adrienne and Balint stood for a moment petrified, for both of them were surprised that Uzdy, who always slept late, should be up so early. ‘I had to say goodbye,’ he called. ‘Out of politeness, of course! It’s proper for the host. Wait for me! I’m coming down!’ He disappeared and Adrienne and Balint looked wonderingly at each other, asking themselves what this could mean. Had he been spying on them? Could he have heard how familiarly they spoke to each other?

Uzdy came out towards them dressed in a long dark-grey flannel robe like some ghost advancing slowly across the lawn.

‘I wanted to ask you to be so good as not to tell anyone about what we discussed yesterday. Not to anybody, anybody at all! This whole thing is so universally important — and, of course, so simple, so elementary — that somebody might well try to steal the idea. Then it would get written up and all my work would be for nothing. It’s just the idea, that’s it, just the basic idea that counts. That’s what matters — the idea!’ He barked out the words and tapped at his forehead as he almost shouted once again, ‘The idea! That’s what matters!’

Balint assured him he would keep it all deathly secret and they shook hands. He started to move away, and Adrienne went with him.

‘Darling Addy, you are going with our distinguished friend?’ asked Uzdy in an exaggerated drawl.

She turned to face him, her black hair seeming even more alive than usual in the slight breeze. Her head was held high, her aquiline nose as sharp as a knife-edge and her whole attitude one of challenge and defiance.

‘Oh, yes! I’ll go with him. I always walk at this time. Do you object?’

‘No! No! Not at all. Go ahead … of course, of course. Do go … of course.’ He spoke each word more slowly than the last, but stayed where he was, motionless on the lawn in front of the house, as Balint and Adrienne started to climb the hill.

Before they reached the trees they both turned and looked back.

Uzdy was still standing in the same place and to the young man at least it looked as if Uzdy’s oriental features were distorted with rage and his mouth open as if he were about to call out after them. The tall elongated figure silhouetted against the butter-yellow building was like an exclamation mark after a cry of menace.

‘You must tell me! What happened yesterday, all the time you were in his room? Why that awful time?’ asked Adrienne as soon as they had reached the shade of the forest. ‘I was so afraid for you. It was hours … I was terrified!’

Balint laughed.

‘So was I, when he issued his summons. I was sure we were in for a showdown and that, as soon as we got to his room, or shortly afterwards, he’d pull his Browning on me. But it wasn’t for that or anything like it. I don’t think it even entered his head!’

Adrienne wanted to know what they had talked about.

‘He wanted to explain some abstruse mathematical theory that he had invented and was working on. I can’t really explain it — it’s very peculiar, brilliant in its way but quite pointless. He wants to change our way of counting and proposes that ten should not contain ten units but twelve.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘No more do I, not now when I have to explain it! But when Uzdy talked about it I seemed more or less to follow him, even though it all seemed completely crazy. It was really very interesting; he’s got the most extraordinary range of knowledge — but to spend so much time and energy on such a pointless idea — it’s just not normal!’

‘When was he ever normal?’ cried Adrienne. ‘Never! Never! Never!’

Now they emerged from the trees and found themselves on a bare ridge. The view from where they stood was beautiful and in the valleys the morning mist was bathed in sunshine until it looked almost liquid, vibrating and surging like a vast sea which submerged even the farthest mountains.

Back among the trees they continued along the forest path and, as they did so, the feeling of liberation in Adrienne grew stronger and stronger. When, after the traumatic afternoon of waiting on the previous day, she had finally seen Balint emerge unscathed from the lions’ den and in quiet conversation with her husband, the release from those two hours of terrified waiting had come as more than mere escape from a dreaded threat. It was as if she were now released from all obligations to her husband. Now, at long last, she had found the strength to resist him and when, the previous evening, she had at last shut her door on him it had left her with a sense of triumph, of long-awaited freedom. She was still engulfed in the shade of the prison-house, but now, for the first time, Adrienne felt that the doors to freedom were opening before her.