Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/66

 it! Nevertheless, neither of them gave way. He demanded that she should recognize his right to her personally for the sake of his love, while she expected him to appreciate her straight and honest character and her steadfastness. Meanwhile the breach between them gaped larger and larger before their eyes, and they began at last to look at and speak to each other as enemies. Alas! Why were their temperaments so similar? Even the Moper had probably not guessed how soon their happiness would change.

At last Vendulka’s long repressed sorrow found vent in tears. In the same room and on the same seat near the stove, where the disastrous quarrel had begun, she broke down and wept bitterly. Her tears flowed unchecked, and she took counsel with herself what she should do when Lukas returned home from his work in the evening.

When he came in, she had not yet made up her mind. It startled him to see her weeping so bitterly in his house, and the last occasion on which he had seen her cry like this occurred to him. It had been on the last evening which they had spent under the aspen tree together; when they had both thought that they were taking leave of each