Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/53

 Was she afraid that now that she was his, he would hold her less dear, as men sometimes do? That therefore it was prudent to be more reserved and to put him off? How could she so misjudge him? It was just because of her sincerity and undisguised surrender that he valued her so highly, and he had been happy to know that there was nothing but truth behind every one of her glances and words. At last he resolved not to trouble his head about it, and not to try to know the reason for this sudden change in her. Perhaps she hardly knew herself. Women sometimes took an obstinate notion into their heads, and when you asked them the reason for it, they could not tell.

It was of no consequence. What did a kiss matter? If not to-day, she would give it him another day. The chief thing was that he had her with him on his farm, by his fireside, with his child, and no one had a right to interfere or take her from him.

‘She will change her mind to-morrow, she won’t be able to keep it up longer,’ Lukas repeated to himself, and to comfort himself he recalled those lovely evenings under the aspen tree.

Firmly convinced that those hours of bliss