Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/26

 impossibilities, one half supports the bridegroom, the other the father-in-law.

The Palouckys’ house was always kept spotlessly clean, for Vendulka was as particular as if she had been town-bred. But on this day more than usual care had been taken to clean and tidy everything, as though it were the eve of a festival. The floor of the room and passage had been amply strewn with white sand; the black frames round the pictures of saints had been pasted with leaf-gold and stuck with green boughs; the window-panes were polished so that each one should catch the rays of the sun at their brightest. And yet it was neither a saint’s day, nor the eve of a festival. Clearly then, rare and honoured guests were being expected.

Lukas, although he had avoided meeting Vendulka during the six weeks of mourning, so as to give no offence, had probably given her a hint through a trustworthy person that he intended to call and ask for her father’s consent. She must also have communicated this news to her father: otherwise old Paloucky, called “the Moper” behind his back, on account of his extreme bigotry, and of his finding cause for dismal reflection in every event that happened, would hardly have put on his