Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/149

 And out loud he said, “Perhaps some family friend, eh?”

“Possibly something of the kind”, answered Kubista.

“Hm!” sneered Novak. “There is a hitch in this affair also.”

All thought that Novak alluded to the well-known relation of old Kubista to grandfather, and paid no further attention to what he had said.

But Novak perceiving that they failed to catch his real drift, put on a fresh grimace, as though he had hit upon just the right trump.

“For John is making friends somewhere else.”

“That is a lie!” cried out Betuska, enraged at the light manner in which he spoke of Uncle John, and her face flushed scarlet.

“Lie, or no lie,” continued Novak, “I cannot know everything; still less, for that matter, can a young schoolgirl. But next Sunday John is off to Brizoff on a visit to the Horakoffs.”

“You lie in your throat,” cried out Betuska again, and trembled all over. The storm of passion which then for the first time came in a kind of paroxysm, did not allow her time to find any other defensive weapon. But at the same time her countenance reflected all the indignation she felt at the lightly spoken words of Novak.

Betuska went to her mother, laid her head on her mother’s shoulder, and gave way to a bitter fit of weeping.

Sobbing she reproached her parents for suffering any one to speak—any godless miscreant.

Kubista loved his daughter above measure. He did not permit Novak to say any more in that daughter’s presence, but at the same time, for the sake of her mother, he wished to test whether the matter had any substantial foundation. He took Novak by the hand, went out with him into the parlour, and then cross-questioned him at considerable length.

The end of the interview was this, that Kubista told Novak not to come to his house again, and as to the visit of that youth to which Novak had pledged himself—that nothing more must be said about it.

Novak excused himself with many fresh bows and obsequious speeches, without retracting a word of what he had said. He begged them to forgive him for having come. “My intention”, said he, “never was to disturb your domestic tranquillity-indeed, I assure you I came with the purest intentions.” And when he had said everything that he meant to say he departed. Rh