Page:Poet Lore, volume 28, 1917.djvu/566

 determined stand in this affair! And now such a misfortune and I myself am the cause! I alone am to blame! (Weeping.)

Kralenec (In a weak broken voice, but plainly).—Tonicka!

( drying the tears on a corner of her apron.)

Kralenec.—You are not are not  the cause of anything.

( goes to him, while he reaches for her hand.)

Kralenec.—It had to be, one of us had to pay the price! It could not be otherwise! (Sees the chaplain.) And our honorable chaplain! Our respected guests here!

Chaplain (Steps to the bed and takes his hand).—To you, dear Kralenec, to you

Kralenec (Heavily).—Thanks thanks

Chaplain.—Only do not try to talk! We will make up for everything after you get well!

Kralenec.—When I am well (His head sinks back. He sleeps.)

Tonicka.—And again he sleeps. That is just the way he does all the time. He awakes, speaks, or takes a drink of water, and then sleeps again. (Enters, young, twenty-five years old, in a laboring man’s clothes.) And what do you wish?

Melichar.—I am here with my father— (noticing the chaplain.) And here is your worthy minister. Please pardon (going toward him.)

Chaplain.—Be quiet! Here is a man dangerously ill! What do you wish?

Melichar (Looking at, quietly but with respect).—I will not disturb him. But be good enough to allow I am not a tramp, as you evidently judge me to be. I am a journalist from the “Ceskych Novin,” and my name is Melichar. Here is my permit from the superintendent. (Drawing out papers, hands them to the chaplain.)

Chaplain.—But I pray you, in these clothes!

Melichar.—The captain in command here has forbidden strangers, especially journalists, to enter this mining distrct [sic] until things quiet down again. And our paper would like to have a