Page:Halek's Stories and Evensongs.pdf/225

 foot to the other, and Malka was in difficulties, not knowing whether she ought to clutch the dinner-basket to prevent it from being jolted out, or whether she ought to keep herself there by clutching with both hands.

It delighted Poldik beyond measure this fear of hers, which was at the same time half laughter. I do not know what the horses had to say to all that coaxing and whip-cracking, but they understood it, and for the nonce shook off several years of their lives. But, indeed, even Poldik felt himself younger and scarcely remembered when he felt so young as he did that day.

Well, and when they halted not far from Naplavka [the Quay] in the shadow of the lofty wall, he actually bounded from the cart, and when he looked at Malka and her face was covered with smiles and dimples, and she said, “What a ride we have had!”—oh! then it seemed as though they must be married to-morrow morning. Finally he helped her out of the cart. Malka took his hand with much simplicity, rested her other hand on his shoulder, and giving a spring allowed herself to be lifted off her feet and placed on the ground. Poldik felt thoroughly self-satisfied, and never in his life imagined that he could have courted a girl so well.

What came to pass fortuitously to-day, came to pass again on the morrow and the day after, and then for many a day. From some cause or other he always happened to overtake Malka about midday in some street, settled her in the cart, drove about with her, smirked at her, urged on the horses until the cart bumped over the paving-stones, and then again lifted her from the cart and took his dinner. At that time Poldik’s horses fared well, so that they thought nothing of their accelerated speed. They had plainly grown rich, both in the matter of speed and their provisions for life, and displayed it in every step.

At this period, you will understand, Poldik’s own feet moved brisker and were firmer planted. He was as it were on the highway to something better, and showed a touch of the dandy and of the world, though indeed any one at the first glance would have recognized his original uniformity and ponderousness latent beneath it all.

At this period it happened that once as Poldik was helping Malka from the cart, a certain chum of his passing by them grinned ironically at the couple, and inquired, “And, pray, when are you two going to pair off?” To this question Poldik ought to have replied with a smart repartee, and Malka with silence. But as it