Palagiesu declared emphatically that “we must all do our duty to our country”. This, however, was an opinion of a representative of the State and therefore enforced and not the spontaneous outcome of free conviction. Apostol, in his heart, believed that the best thing would be to ignore the war as something abnormal. Yes, that was all very well, but suppose he were called up to-morrow?

“You see, darling,” said his mother uneasily, “if you had but listened to us and gone into the Church you would be a priest to-day and there would be no need for you to worry about the war.… Whereas now, God only knows what …”

And Apostol, in order to convince himself more than for any other reason, made answer:

“One of these days I also shall go off to do my duty.”

Doamna Bologa, frightened and indignant, asked:

“You’d endanger your life? For whom and for what?”

“For my country,” muttered the student with an irresolute smile.

“We have no country!” exclaimed the mother indignantly. “This is not our country. It were far better for the horses of the Russians to trample over it!”

She sent immediately for Protopop Groza, and together they tried to evict from his mind these imprudent ideas. Apostol’s irresolution grew. He left the house with his mind in a whirl, and found himself presently in Domsa’s house.

“What, you? Our hope? You to fight for the Hungarians who fight us? When one has a country like ours one is not in any way obliged to worry one’s head about one’s duty to it—on the contrary!”

“And yet there’s the principle …” put in Apostol without conviction.

“What principle? When a man’s life is at stake all principles may go to the devil. We must wait, Apostol! Our watchword must be ‘Reserve’.”

“Reserve means passivity, and passivity is worse than death.…”

“Passivity keeps our hopes unharmed, whereas activity just now is synonymous with annihilation.”

Apostol was silent. In his heart he was now convinced that he need not go. But before he had time to answer Domsa, Marta, who had been out to see a friend, came in. The lawyer, as was his custom, left them alone.

“Everybody is joining up …” said Marta.

In her eyes, in her voice, Apostol caught a strange tremor. Marta was thinking of “that other fellow”. They talked for about an hour, and all the time Apostol saw that his fiancée was like a stranger to him, yet he knew that by a single gesture it was in his power to win her whole heart. For an hour he hesitated and then, as he was going, he looked deep into her eyes and said firmly:

“The day after to-morrow I am joining up.”

Marta smiled incredulously. But the next minute her cheeks flushed, her eyes flashed with pride, and with a passionate gesture she ran into his arms and kissed him on the lips. And in that kiss Apostol realized the fullness of his success.

Two days later he left for Cluj and presented himself at the recruiting station, where a lanky colonel congratulated him warmly. When he had put on his uniform, he stared at himself in the glass and hardly recognized himself, so soldierly had his appearance become. The town throbbed with an enthusiasm which was infectious. On the pavements, in the cafés, at the University, everywhere people were gay, as if the war had freed them from some terrible danger, or as if it promised them some heavenly bliss. In this atmosphere the remnants of his hesitation melted away like wax. He felt proud and happy in his spruce gunner’s uniform, and he saluted smartly all the officers he met, deeply convinced that in doing this he was also doing his duty to his country.

He trained for two months at the artillery school, after which he was sent to the front. Then he was made an officer, and was twice wounded, the first time slightly, but the second time so badly that he had two months in hospital and one month’s sick-leave at home; he was decorated three times and promoted lieutenant—all in two years. The war had taken front place in his “conception of life”, from which, a little while ago, he had wished to eliminate it. Now he said to himself that was the true source of life and the most effective means of selection. Only in the face of death did man understand the true value of life, and only by danger was the soul properly disciplined. Then had come the court martial which had condemned Svoboda. And after that the gibbet and the eyes of the condemned man and the Rumanian song of the orderly—like a reproach …

1 The Rumans of Transylvania and the Banat, having been deprived of their ancient privileges, rose under Horia, Closca and Crischanu in 1785. They were suppressed, but subsequently Joseph II declared the peasants free.

2 At Hermannstadt, in July 1893, a Pan-Rumanian Congress drew up a memorandum of the grievances of the Rumanians in Transylvania. The Austrian Premier had twenty of the leaders tried and imprisoned on a charge of treason.

3 Rumanian for “Mrs”.

III

“Sir, it is late; time for supper.”

Apostol Bologa opened his eyes, his mind confused.