Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/47

 Lukas expected Vendulka to come to him; he hesitated to go to her, fearing he might upset her as she had been so excited. But Vendulka was making a close inspection of the spinning wheels and spindles near the stove, to see whether the maids were keeping them in proper order. So he approached her after a time and, sitting down on the stool near the stove, he looked at his handsome bride with all the intense love which his heart held for her. Again, as in the afternoon during the settlement he was speechless with emotion. She too was silent, and busied herself with the spinning wheels.

At last Lukas began with a voice choked with emotion: ‘It is good of you to be so fond of me.’

She looked at him with astonishment, and if her heart had not been so sore at the thought of the dead woman and her innocent babe, she would have laughed aloud at his remark.

‘Is that a new thing, that you praise me for it?’

‘Well, it’s not new; I only meant to say that we should never have found each other but for your faithfulness.’

‘Yes, to be sure,’ she assented, ‘for us two things have come right. But your dead wife