Free They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy Page A

influence, usually in direct opposition to whatever Aunt Lizinka was trying to achieve. She never lost an opportunity of discrediting Miklos Absolon, who for many years had lived with his housekeeper, a fact well-known to everybody, and who according to Lizinka was nothing more than a ‘crack-heeled servant’. ‘And now, my dears – I know it for a fact – she’s cheating on him with every Tom, Dick and Harry! It’s true! I know it because it is so!
     
    All this was happening while Balint was washing in the guest cloak room. As he stepped out into the hall he met again the butler Kadar carrying a large tray of glasses.
    ‘Where can I find Countess Laczok?’ he asked.
    ‘The Count should leave her be,’ replied the old man testily, ‘and go on out into the garden. That’s where all the gentlemen are.’ And without waiting for an answer, he marched on breathing heavily.
    So Balint went out through the front door again. About a hundred yards away on the edge of the old moat was a gaunt old lime tree under which the men were gathered. Some of them had come from the races, while others were husbands of the ladies upstairs who had come from Vasarhely and the country around Var-Siklod to call upon the hostess. Under the tree was a round table made from an ancient mill-stone, on which had been placed decanters of wine, bottles of lemonade and mineral waters and several trays of glasses. Directly under the tree sat the host, Count Jeno Laczok. The visitors, on benches and garden chairs – and some standing – had grouped themselves according to their political allegiance; one party on his left, the other on his right.
    Next to the host, on his right, sat Crookface, who had been Prefect for fifteen years during the Kalman Tisza régime, and beside him the present Prefect, Peter Kis, with Soma Weissfeld, the banker who was also a State Counsellor. This last honorary title had been obtained for Weissfeld by Jeno Laczok as a reward for having helped him run the private company which had been formed to manage the combined forestry interests of the different branches of the Laczok family. Nearby sat Beno Balogh Peter, the ambitious notary who was always being wooed by the opposition ; Uncle Ambrus who, though he secretly inclined away from the party in power, gave outward allegiance to whichever policy was supported by his cousin Crookface; Adam and Zoltan Alvinczy, who followed Uncle Ambrus in everything; and, finally , Joska Kendy, who sat silently smoking his pipe. Joska never discussed politics but he had placed himself there because he had two horses to sell and planned to palm them off on the Prefect.
    Here the party line was broken by a large and hairy man with a black beard, Zoltan Varju, a neighbour of the Laczoks, who was generally regarded as an irresponsible and dangerous demagogue , and who sat facing the host.
    On Count Laczok’s other side sat Ordung, the County Sheriff, whose dealings with the opposition were by no means as discreet as he believed; his friend the Deputy Sheriff Gaalffy, and an elderly man, Count Peter Bartokfay, in Hungarian dress and boots, who had been Member for Maros-Torda for many years in the past. Beside the old politician sat Zsigmond Boros, an eminent lawyer in the district and one of the leading political figures in Vasarhely; and a round-faced, puffy young man, Isti Kamuthy, who was politically ambitious and so liked to keep in with anyone important.
    Between Kamuthy and Varju sat old Daniel Kendy who had no political ideas of any sort, but who had chosen that place because there he was nearest to the wine. He never spoke, but just sat quietly drinking, refilling his glass the moment it was empty.
    A little further away, outside the main circle, stood and sat the young men who had been asked to the ball, together with a few others who had not found places nearer the host. Among these last was Tihamer Abonyi who had placed himself beside Laszlo Gyeroffy, partly because they came