Page:Poet Lore, volume 21, 1910.djvu/444

 Maya.—I really wanted to go by the fields.

Votava.—I would not advise you. You might get wet. The clouds are pretty darkly gathered above Zalchi.

Kocianova.—God forbid. Our people are still in the fields. But now I must—(Goes into the house.)

Matoush.—And you, doctor, will stay a while, will you not?

Votava.—I’ll take a look around the village and come back here for Miss Zemanova.

Matoush.—Well, good by! (Goes into the house.)

Votava.—And how do you come to be here, Miss Zemanova?

Maya.—I used to be a guest here many years ago.

Votava.—Ach surely! My wife was telling me about it the other day. I forgot.

Maya.—No wonder. A busy, worried man like you!

Votava.—And don’t you think that we have no worries! We in the villages are, as it were, isolated from the rest of the world, but we still have our worries.

Maya.—Listen, doctor, do you often come here to the rectory?

Votava.—Now and then. Whenever it is necessary. Every time I come to the village I always stop here to see the old man. He is one of those old-fashioned ones. One still can talk to such.

Maya.—Young Kocian is of the younger generation, I suppose?

Votava.—Well, at the present time he is not. That is—I don’t know. On the whole, he is a poor talker. Perhaps his seminary life did not contribute much to his happiness.

Maya (with interest).—How is that?

Votava.—The boy used to be as wild as an Indian and then he got very seriously ill. He recovered and was a good student. I thought that he would become something else. But his mother was set upon the seminary—and the uncle, what could he do? He did not resist her wishes.

Maya.—And Petr?

Votava.—He humbly goes the usual path of our poor country students. That’s the way it always ends with our farmer lads; either they haven’t enough money for the university or it’s the wish of their pious parents. Our peasants want all their sons to be gentlemen. Well, they manage to get them through the gymnasium somehow, but then—it’s hard. The rank and file of our young clergy, even those who become religious fanatics later in life, is formed thus from involuntary candidates.