Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/28

 The brother-in-law could not suppress a smile at the Moper’s unusual smartness; as a rule he took a long time before he said what he was going to say, and pondered long and thoroughly, so as not to endanger his salvation. It is to be regretted that people of this kind are dying out: formerly all our mountain dwellers were equally cautious and conscientious.

Lukas too was smiling contentedly to himself, pleased to hear Vendulka’s name coupled with his own. He was only at that moment beginning to believe that all that had happened in the course of the last six weeks was true. He had lived through the weeks of mourning as in a dream, unable to realize this sudden turn of his fortune. He warmly replied: ‘We two would have come to terms three years ago if my parents hadn’t interfered, isn’t that so, uncle?’

‘What d’you mean by that?’ said the Moper in a depressed tone.

‘What do I mean? You would have been as glad to give me Vendulka as I should have been to have taken her.’

The old man again looked perplexed; for some time he did not answer, then he slightly shrugged his shoulders.