Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/171

 she would be for ever excluded from her rightful place.

The thought of humbling herself before her husband and revealing her secret, flashed through her mind. But she forced it away from her. Should she, at the moment when he was thinking of doing good and giving a home and parents to some unfortunate being, crush him with her dreadful disclosure?

After a long pause, and without looking at him: ‘Yes, do so,’ she said in a whisper.

‘You really mean it, and you don’t even look at me?’ said Hron as with a gentle reproach. ‘I know it is hard to speak of these things, but I am afraid there is no prospect of a change. But all the same, if you do not like the idea’

When later on Magda remembered this moment, she was conscious of having fought a hard battle with herself for the second time in her life, just as hard as that after which she had consented to accept Ivan’s hand. But she now had the strength to turn to him, and look at him with her brimming eyes, while her hand gently returned the pressure of his right hand. She said firmly: ‘Not at all, I quite agree with you.’

The subject was not mentioned between