Atlantida

"Professor," Spardek began with dignity.

"I maintain my contention," cried Le Mesge, who seemed to me to be

getting a bit overloaded. "I call the gentleman to witness," he went

on, turning to me. "He has just come. He is unbiased. Therefore I ask

him: has one the right to spoil a Bambara cook by addling his head

with theological discussions for which he has no predisposition?"

"Alas!" the pastor replied sadly. "You are mistaken. He has only too

strong a propensity to controversy."

"Koukou is a good-for-nothing who uses Colas' cow as an excuse for

doing nothing and letting our scallops burn," declared the Hetman.

"Long live the Pope!" he cried, filling the glasses all around.

"I assure you that this Bambara worries me," Spardek went on with

great dignity. "Do you know what he has come to? He denies

transubstantiation. He is within an inch of the heresy of Zwingli and

Oecolampades. Koukou denies transubstantiation."

"Sir," said Le Mesge, very much excited, "cooks should be left in

peace. Jesus, whom I consider as good a theologian as you, understood

that, and it never occurred to him to call Martha away from her oven

to talk nonsense to her."

"Exactly so," said the Hetman approvingly.

He was holding a jar between his knees and trying to draw its cork.

"Oh, Côtes Rôties, wines from the Côte-Rôtie!" he murmured to me as he

finally succeeded. "Touch glasses."

"Koukou denies transubstantiation," the pastor continued, sadly

emptying his glass.

"Eh!" said the Hetman of Jitomir in my ear, "let them talk on. Don't

you see that they are quite drunk?"

His own voice was thick. He had the greatest difficulty in the world

in filling my goblet to the brim.

I wanted to push the pitcher away. Then an idea came to me: "At this very moment, Morhange.... Whatever he may say.... She is so

beautiful."

I reached out for the glass and emptied it once more.

Le Mesge and the pastor were now engaged in the most extraordinary

religious controversy, throwing at each other's heads the Book of

Common Prayer, The Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the

Unigenitus. Little by little, the Hetman began to show that ascendancy

over them, which is the characteristic of a man of the world even when

he is thoroughly drunk; the superiority of education over instruction.

Count Bielowsky had drunk five times as much as the Professor or the

pastor. But he carried his wine ten times better.

"Let us leave these drunken fellows," he said with disgust. "Come on,

old man. Our partners are waiting in the gaming room."