The Pobratim Part 51

"Yes, I did."

"Well, it appears he's gone and murdered the only friend he had."

"That's not astonishing. The only thing that surprises me is that he ever had a friend to murder. He was one of the most unsociable men I ever met."

Afterwards they spoke of the accident that had kept the two young men at Ragusa, at which Giulianic seemed greatly concerned.

"Anyhow," said he, "it's lucky that my wife and Ivanka have come with me from Nona. They'll be so glad to see you again; for you must know, Captain Panajotti, that my bones, and those of my wife and daughter, would now be lying at the bottom of the sea, had it not been for the courage of these two young men."

"Oh! you must thank him," said Uros, pointing to Milenko. "I only helped so as not to leave him to risk his life alone."

"They never told me anything about it; but, of course, they did not know that I was acquainted with you." Then, laughing, the captain added: "Fancy, I have been warning them not to lose their hearts on seeing your beautiful daughter."

"And didn't I tell you that my friend had already left his heart at Nona?"

Saying this, Uros pinched his friend's arm. Milenko blushed, and was about to say something, but Giulianic began to speak about business; then added:

"And now I must leave you; but suppose you all three come and meet us at the Cappello in about an hour's time, and have some dinner with us? I'll not say a word either to my wife or Ivanka, and you may fancy how surprised they'll be to see you."

Captain Panajotti seemed undecided.

"No, I'll not have any excuse; you captains are little tyrants the moment the anchor is weighed, but the moment it's dropped you are all smiles and affability. Come, I'll have a dish of _scordalia_ to whet your appet.i.te; now, you can't resist that; so ta-ta for the present."

The moment Giulianic disappeared Milenko looked at his friend, whose eyes were twinkling with merriment.

"It's done," said Uros, smiling.

"But what made you take the poor fellow in as you did?"

"_I_ take him in? Well, I like that."

"Well, but----"

"If he deceived himself, am I to be held responsible for his mistakes?"

"Still----"

"Besides, if there was any deception, I must say you did your best to let it go on."

"Of course, I did; but who made me do it?"

"I did."

"And now is it to continue?"

"Of course."

"But why?"

"Milenko, you're a good fellow, but in some things you are a great ninny. You ask me why? Well, because, for two days, you can make love to the daughter under the father's very nose; in the meantime I'll devote myself to the father and mother, and make myself pleasant to them."

"Yes, but what'll be the upshot of all this?"

"'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof,' the proverb says; why will you make yourself wretched, thinking of the future, when you can be so happy? If I only had the opportunity of spending two long days with----"

Uros did not finish his phrase; his merry face grew dark, and he sighed deeply; then he added: "There is usually some way out of all difficulties; see how you got out of prison."

"Still, look in what a predicament you've placed me."

"Well, if you feel qualmish, we can tell the old man that he's a goose, for he really doesn't know who his son-in-law is; then I'll make love to fair Ivanka, and you'll look on. Now are you satisfied?"

"What are you wrangling about?" said Captain Panajotti, appearing out of the hatchway in his best clothes, his baggy trowsers more voluminous than those that Mrs. Bloomer tried to set in fashion a few years afterwards.

"Oh! nothing," said Uros, laughing; "only you must know that every first quarter of the moon I suffer from lunacy. I'm not at all dangerous, quite the contrary; especially if I'm not contradicted. So you might try and bear with me for a day or two; by the time we sail again I'll be all right; it's only a flow of exuberant animal spirits, that must vent themselves. But, how fine you are, captain; I'm afraid you are trying to out-do my friend, and if it wasn't that you are married, I'd have thought that all your warnings for us not to fall in love with the Sciot's daughter----"

"I see that the lunacy is beginning, so I'll not contradict; but hadn't you better go and dress?"

"All right," quoth Uros, and in a twinkling the two young men disappeared down the hatchway.

Half-an-hour afterwards they were at the Albergo Cappello, the only inn of the town, where they found Giulianic awaiting them. The two women were very much astonished to see them. Ivanitza's eyes flashed with unrestrained delight on perceiving her lover, but then she looked down demurely--as every well-bred damsel should--and blushed like a pomegranate flower. Only, when she heard her father address him by his friend's name, she looked up astonished; but seeing Uros slily wink at her, she again cast down her eyes, wondering what it all meant.

After a while the mother whispered to her husband that she had always mistaken one of the young men for the other.

"Did you?" said he, laughing. "Well, I am astonished, for you women are so much keener in knowing people than we men are; for, to tell you the truth, I've often been puzzled myself; they are both the same age, they are like brothers, they are dressed alike, so it's easy to mistake them."

"Anyhow," added she, "I'm glad to have been mistaken, because, although I like both of them, still I prefer our future son-in-law to young Bellacic; he's more earnest and sedate than his friend."

"Yes, I think you are right; the other one is such a chatterbox."

"And, then, he displayed so much courage at the time of our shipwreck; indeed, had it not been for his bravery, we should all have been drowned."

"Yes, I remember; he was the first one to come to our rescue. Still, we must be just towards the other one, for he is a brave and a plucky fellow to boot."

"And so lively!"

"That's it; rather too much so; anyhow, I'm glad that Ivanka has fallen in love with the right man; because it would have been exactly like the perverseness of the gentle s.e.x for her to have liked the other one better."

"Oh, my daughter has been too well brought up to make any objection!

Just fancy a girl choosing for herself; it would be preposterous!"

"Yes, of course it would; still, she might have moped and threatened to have gone into a decline. Oh, I know the ways of your model girls!"

In the meanwhile, Milenko explained to the young girl how the mistake had originated, and how her father had, from the first, believed him to be Uros.

Dinner was soon served in a private room of the hotel; and Uros, who, to keep up the buoyancy of his spirits, and act the part he had undertaken to play brilliantly, had swallowed several gla.s.ses of _slivovitz_, and had induced Captain Panajotti to follow his example, was now indulging freely with the strong Dalmatian wine. Still, he only took enough to be talkative and merry; but, as he exaggerated the effects of the wine, everybody at table believed him to be quite tipsy.

No sooner had the dish of macaroni been taken away than he began to insist upon Captain Panajotti telling them a story.