Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 162.djvu/241

Rh ," he said at last, on being pressed. "It is no use trying to decide here without seeing the things, and having ascertained the prices. Next Friday is market day at the town. I have got to take a pig there for sale myself, and if your Reverence will take a place alongside in my cart, we can look over the things and make an estimate."

The priest was old, and not particularly fond of movement, and the prospect of a three hours' drive in a jolting cart, alongside of a squeaking pig, was not particularly tempting; but there seemed no other way out of the difficulty, so with a resigned sigh he agreed to the plan.

But if it was difficult to come to a decision at Rudniki, it seemed still more so when the curé, accompanied by two or three villagers, found himself transplanted into the comparative bustle of a large county town. The treasures displayed in the windows of the Jewish shops dazzled their simple minds, and suggested possibilities of extravagance hitherto undreamt of. The golden gates and the candle-sticks received further rivals in the shape of artificial flowers, china vases, and hanging lamps, and the vacillating old priest was wellnigh driven to distraction by the conflicting claims of different objects.

Filip, being gifted with the clearest and most business-like head of the party, succeeded with difficulty in introducing something like order into his ideas, and limiting the choice finally to a new carpet and golden gates.

The party had been conducted to the atelier of a carpenter and carver, who had shown them various specimens of his art — crucifixion frames, carved images, and other objects. One set of gates he had as well. And such gates! So rich! so golden! so beautifully carved! and, moreover, in the centre was introduced a bas-relief representing St. Peter holding a gigantic key.

The curé and his companions stood speechless with admiration before this work of art.

"And how — how much — does it cost?" said the priest at last timidly. "A hundred and sixty florins," was the discouraging reply. The priest sighed, the peasants scratched their heads, and then they all turned and left the workshop, for they felt it would be better to get out of the way of temptation. A hundred and sixty florins were quite out of their reach; a hundred and fifty was what had been fixed upon for both carpet and gates, and it would be extravagance to spend the whole sum on one object only. The church at Rudniki would never have such a sum again to spend, as the good luck of its mistress marrying a prince was not a thing likely to be repeated.

"Will your Reverence now look at the carpets?" said Filip after a while. They had been silent till then, and were walking in no particular direction, each one busied with his own thoughts. The hundred and sixty florins had still left a depressing influence.

"Yes," said the curé, with mournful hopefulness; "perhaps carpets will be cheaper than gates. I had no notion that gates cost so much." "And they should not cost so much either," said Filip; "but these town fellows think that they can ask anything they like, and that no one is clever but themselves. Why, the whole wood cannot cost more than twenty florins, for I felt it, and saw that it was only lime wood, stained to look like oak. And as for the work — why, any carpenter ought to be able to turn it out in a fortnight. Why, I could do it myself, if I had only time. There is nothing so wonderful about that gate, after all— "

"But St. Peter was very neat," said the priest, again with a sigh of envy; "and that big key in the centre looked remarkably well."

Filip did not answer; he appeared absorbed in calculation of some sort. They had reached the carpet-shop by this time.

The prospect here was somewhat more hopeful. True, there were carpets costing a hundred and fifty florins and upwards, but there were others for eighty, seventy, and even sixty florins, which presented a very respectable appearance — besides which, the shopman being a Jew, might reasonably be expected to come down in his prices. There was, in fact, an embarras de richesses as there were carpets for every purse, of every size, for every taste. Flowers and fruits, hunting-pieces and landscapes, greyhounds and lambs, Arab horses and turtle-doves — all of these executed in a surprising variety of tints and with perfectly novel effects of light and shade.

"Why not this one. Pan Proboszcz?" said the Hebrew master of the shop insinuatingly, displaying the spirited counterfeit of a battle between Crusaders and Turks, showing in the foreground a noble warrior in lilac armor, mounted on a lemon-colored charger, who, with his rose-colored sword, is causing the orange heads of the