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 wreath, which, dropped by her trembling fingers, whirled a moment in one place in the river, then a wave seized it, pushed it on to a second, and that one to a third, and then carried it further and further down stream till it had vanished from the sight of the two girls.

Elška, with clasped hands on the railing of the bridge, gazed with flaming eye and cheek after the wreath now carried by a strong current. Bára, leaning against the rail, also looked silently after it.

“And your wreath was caught here. See, you will marry someone right here!” exclaimed Elška turning to Bára.

“According to that, it looks as if we weren’t to be together, after all. I am to stay here and you are to go far away from us. But I don’t believe in it. Man plans but God decrees.”

“Of course,” Elška said in a voice half sad, and dropped her eyes with a sigh to the stream below.

’o, then, Elška, you’d like to go far away from us? Don’t you like it here?” asked Bára, and her dark-blue eyes gazed into Elška’s face searchingly.

“Why, what are you thinking of?” whispered Elška, not raising her eyes. “I like it here, but ”

“But out there far away is someone for whom you are yearning, whom you’d like to go to isn’t that so, Elška?” concluded Bára, and laying her brown hand on the girl's white shoulder she looked with a smile into her face.