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 complained. Like the peasants, he did not mention his own fright.

Miss Pepinka was so rejoiced at the import of Vlček’s speech that she could have forgiven Bára on the spot. But the hostler incensed her anew by saying: “Why should I deny it? I was really scared, though I’m not usually afraid of anything. We were all of us frightened. You, Mr. Sexton, could hardly crawl home, and the honorable Mr. Steward here was so terrified he dropped to his knees like an over-ripe pear. When she grinned her teeth at me I was sure it was Death itself—and it’s no wonder, for I was three sheets in the wind. I expected her to clutch me by the throat, but instead she grabbed the steward here, lifted him up and screeched into his ears, ‘If you ever dare show yourself again at the parsonage as a suitor you sign your own death-warrant.’”

The hostler wanted to demonstrate exactly how Bára seized the steward, but the latter dodged his grasp, his face changing from red to purple. But Miss Pepinka was terribly offended, although the peasants fully forgave Bára for putting them to the blush when they learned what she did to the steward. All further procedure was postponed till morning. The steward remained at the parsonage overnight, but by earliest dawn he was well on his way beyond the boundaries.

When in the morning Elška heard what Bára had ventured to do for her sake she begged her uncle and