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 been found in which the ruin of these mills was further predicted. And these mills were nearest to the Horskas’s house.

In the family gloom reigned. The horror of those few nights tinctured all their conversation and to this was added the uncertainty whether more was not yet to come.

Neither Vojtech nor Lidunka at this time exchanged many lovers’ conversations, the common danger overmastered them.

When Vojtech went away from the Horskas’s after the second fire Lidunka asked him with fear: “Are you soon coming back to us, oh Vojtech?”

“I hope I shall not be obliged to come again soon”, he responded.

“It is very dull at our house now”, sighed Lidunka.

“I can sympathize with you”, suggested Vojtech.

“I am bored to death when you are not here. Please come again soon to us.”

The children during this time did not learn lessons, but Vojtech very soon betook himself there. When he was there, Lidunka was almost without an anxious thought; it seemed to her as though nothing could happen, so long as Vojtech was with them. When he quitted them Lidunka fixed on him an imploring look begging him not to leave her for long. As if the future conflagrations all depended on Vojtech and that his presence at the Horskas’s had power to ward them off—so great was the faith Lidunka placed in him.

Vojtech for many a day after these events did in fact only leave them to take his meals; and in the evening to sleep. The remainder of his time he passed with Lidunka.

A week passed—two weeks passed and the predicted conflagration never broke out: the panic passed away, and people in these quarters went about their ordinary avocations. What had happened soon began to be forgotten and at the Horskas’s everything resumed its customary routine. But still it was no less true that Lidunka was wretched if Vojtech was not by her side. And Vojtech? As though there was still some danger to be averted he found his way there often, very often, and these young people met as though they had not seen each other for a whole summer.

Meantime an event occurred which caused a complete revolution in Vojtech. The city and the whole country prepared to celebrate the memory of one of its geniuses of art and in this celebration