Page:Poet Lore, volume 31, 1920.djvu/524

504 (She gives it to .) Well, this afternoon I shall see you at the grove.

Chadima.—Today at the grove? (Recollects.) And what if that man should be there?—Well, madam—

Rejsek.—Every religion has its own holiday: Turks on Friday, Jews on Saturday, Christians on Sunday—

Chadima (Interrupting).—And we shoemakers on Monday.—That's a fact.

Mrs. Rettig.—There will be Bohemian songs.

Rejsek.—And declamations, so I hear. (To .) Then we must come.

Chadima.—Of course, by all means!—And so good day!

Rejsek.—Good day, madam. (They go out.)

has remained near the door, as if too bashful to come further.

Mrs. Rettig.—I am pleased with those men; they are good stuff.—But come in, dear Lenka. What makes you so late today?

Lenka.—Yes, but today—I can't stay.

Mrs. Rettig.—What's this? Has something happened? Your father isn't—?

Lenka.—No, he is well now; nothing has happened, but I—(Hesitates, then with agitation.) Why, you certainly know; surely you have heard—

Mrs, Rettig.—About you, my child? Yes, I have heard, but I did not believe it nor do I now.

Lenka (Frightened, then more calmly).—Why?

Mrs. Rettig.—I did not believe it and I said to myself: "If it were so, Lenka would have come, for she trusts me so, and I love her as a friend of younger years, as my own daughter; she would surely have come, she would have opened her heart to me and would have said with full confidence: 'Auntie, a great, great change is coming; it is a question of my whole life, of my happiness, and not only of mine—'"

Lenka.—I was bashful and it all happened so suddenly.

Mrs. Rettig.—Like a sudden storm, when love flashes forth like lightning. Even in such a case I should have expected you all the more, all the more surely; expected that you would fly to