Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/45

 bridegroom and the lovers had looked into each others’ eyes again for the first time.

Lukas dared not break in upon her mood with outbursts of his boundless happiness. Content to know she was with him, he stood by the window and waited for her to calm down. The sun was just setting behind the woods; everything was bathed in gold. The western sky, flushed with crimson, was glowing like a sea of fire.

To Lukas all this seemed indescribably beautiful and magnificent, and in his happiness he fancied he was on the eve of a great festival which would last for all the rest of his life. How many times he had stood at this window and looked at the evergreen woods, and thought of Vendulka’s faithful love which was as lasting and true as the green of yonder pines.

On countless days the sun had set in such glory as this, but to him it had seemed veiled in gloom, like everything else in the world. Nothing could please him; life had held no joy while he constantly had before him her whom he disliked, and had to keep out of the way of the one for whom his heart was pining. How often he had stood at this window and silently accused his parents of having brought this hard fate upon him; how often blamed