Page:Heavens!.djvu/116

 did not take him into his arms as he was wont to do. Miss Naninka saw it, but made no remark.

“Who knows,” said Cvok, after a while, in a depressed tone, “if we shall not be obliged to put Pepíc̓ek out of the house?”

“Then I’ll go with him, if he goes,” answered the housekeeper very decidedly.

“Well,” replied Cvok, “we shall see—we shall see. I must go to Suchdol to-day on an important errand. I hope to be back in the evening.”

Naninka did not say anything, but stayed in the room with the baby. Cvok walked up and down for a while, then he took out a ten-florin note from his writing-table, put it into his pocket-book, and, fetching his hat and walking-stick, said good-bye, and went out. Naninka with Pepíc̓ek in her arms, stood at the window and looked after him as long as he was in sight.

“I wonder if perhaps the old baroness” she mumbled, without finishing the sentence. “But, whatever it is, I won’t forsake the child. No, no, my darling, I won’t forsake you!”

And she folded the baby to her good old heart.