Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/54

 would return, he at last put worrying thoughts from him, and shut his eyes for sleep when the cocks crew for the third time behind the shed, reminding the maid-servants that the sun had risen from his bed of roses and the new day demanded its share of work.

But Lukas made a mistake when he confidently expected Vendulka to change with the next day. She was exactly the same on the second day, and the third did not differ from the second. She stood firm on her ground that no caresses and kisses must pass between them before their marriage, that to do so would mean troubling the rest of the poor woman in her grave, who had to quit this world so that they might be happy. How else could they conciliate her? What could they do for love of her otherwise than show by their restraint that they valued her memory and held her in high esteem?

Lukas could get nothing out of Vendulka by love. Her sophistries and reasoning displeased him, and she would listen to nothing that he said against her point of view. He could not find it in his heart to treat her roughly. So he resorted to entreaties. He no longer demanded the kiss as a proof of her love, but of her compliance.