Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/166

 for her kindness to them. “You are kind,” says he, “indeed I must confess you seem to me too kind to them.”

And then we must remember that Novak was not by any means a man to leave the farm with empty pockets, nor was Terinka either likely to let him depart with them empty. She always perfectly understood Novak when he told her he was so glad to see her comfortably settled there.

And if Novak did not always carry off all he meant to take at once, of course he came oftener, to carry away more than he could manage on a single journey.

Our young mistress had not too good health, and therefore the doctor often drove over to the farm.

But such visits cost money, and therefore Uncle John sometimes himself drove Terinka over to the doctor, to spare the cost of his coming, and to exercise the horses.

Certainly, very few people quite believed in our mistress’ delicate health, but still she had to spare herself on account of it. She did not venture to undertake any heavy work; she did not venture to walk much, or to exert herself, and Uncle John sometimes did not go to look after the field, because he was obliged to take care of his wife.

Doubtless by these devices Terinka advanced to the wished-for goal.

On the strength of her delicate health she told Uncle John that she could not move about in the living-room with sufficient freedom so long as the old people were there. And as the doctor assured him that her delicate health might last some time longer during which she would require rest, Uncle John one day put the matter clearly before grandfather, and the upshot of it all was that grandfather and grandmother were to be banished to a neighbouring room for so long as Terinka continued in delicate health.

This by itself was no doubt a trifling matter, for any one who knew the spare rooms would admit that they were spacious and clean. But still it rather stung grandfather when he was so summarily banished from the living-room, in which for half a century he had experienced all the boons and ills of life.

His eyes were certainly slightly bedimmed, and he told uncle that he thought perhaps Terinka would find it more quiet in the spare room than where so many people were constantly coming and going; but Uncle John objected that opposition only made her worse, and that delicate women must be humoured.