Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/70

 worth their while? But he brought with him three girls who did not enjoy the best reputation, else they would not have gone with him, when they knew that he was betrothed to another. He then proceeded to dance with the girls so furiously that the house shook.

Crowds of spectators arrived on the scene to enjoy this exhibition. They all laughed at the bridegroom’s mad behaviour, and made conjectures as to the causes of this disgusting spectacle. Vendulka could hear every word through the open windows. She dared not shut them for fear of drawing the people’s attention upon her. What she heard made her feel sick. No! she would do wrong to put up with this scandal; it had evidently been Lukas’s intention to hold her up to public ridicule for having pined after him for years.

When he had at last taken himself off with his crew, when the screams and laughter died down in the distance, and darkness fell, Vendulka hastily gathered up her belongings into a bundle and took leave of the sleeping child. She bent over the cradle to which she had come on that first night with many good intentions in her warm heart, and burst