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 you put the priest in quite another place from what we other priests do.”

At that moment the noonday bell sounded. The priests both stood up, crossed themselves reverently, and said the Angelus. Spinster Regina was seen coming from the house. She happened to be in the cellar when Cvok arrived, so he had got into the garden without her knowledge.

“Soup is on the table,” she announced.

The two gentlemen stood up and walked on into the house, Miss Regina following behind and nearly scorching them with her angry eyes.

The dinner was a sad affair. The soup over-salted, the sauce burnt, the meat like leather, and the pudding without flavour. The priests ate their dinner in silence, and went out immediately after into the garden. On the grass before the arbour where they sat, a tame jackdaw was hopping about.

“I wish I was that jackdaw,” said spinster Regina to herself, while preparing the coffee. “I should be able to hear everything they said, and chatter it out again on purpose, till both of them would have more than enough of it.”

Unfortunately for her pleasure, this benevolent intention remained only a pious wish for the present. Cvok took the letter he had got that morning out of his breast pocket.

“What is that letter about?” asked Ledecký.

“Just on account of this letter I have come to Suchdol to-day to ask for your advice. There, read it. I wonder what you’ll say to it.”

Father Ledecký put on his spectacles and began to read. Every now and then he shook his head, but did