Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/150

 had left the streets behind; Hron met only a few strangers. The place seemed almost deserted. He crossed the river by the stone bridge and turned through a side-street towards the Bruska. But that was full of people, so he went through the archway and out into the fields.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he was there, but the consciousness of his sorrow did not leave him. He thought of his wedding-day and his married life. His thoughts came and went incoherently; he thought of the time before his marriage. Who was this man who had been the first to win Magda’s heart, her whole heart, even herself? Who was he, the father of Magda, who was dead? When had all that happened? And again he felt the tears rising in his throat, and an immeasurable pain, as though he had lost what he treasured most. But at that time Magda had not been his! He also thought of the moments when their childlessness had been most bitter to him; when he had looked enviously at his friends’ families and their happiness, when he had romped with their children. Now he understood Magda’s mute, eloquent looks on those occasions, which had haunted him. ‘If that were my