Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/711

 Rh moved with hurried breathing, and her heart beat as if she expected to hear something which would make the soul melt and flow apart in her. But Zbyshko was silent, for he had lost his former boldness completely; he feared to frighten her with some heedless word, and, in spite of what his eyes saw, he persuaded himself that she was showing him mere sisterly kindness out of friendship for Matsko.

He mentioned this once to his uncle; he tried to speak calmly, with indifference; he did not even note that his words became more and more like a complaint, half sad and half filled with reproaches.

Matsko listened patiently. At last he said the single word, "Simpleton!" and walked out of the room.

But when he was in the stable he rubbed his hands, and struck his thighs with great gleefulness.

"Ha!" said he, "when she came to thee for nothing thou wouldst not even look at her. Take thy fill of fright now, since thou art a simpleton. I will build the castle, and thou meanwhile, let thy mouth water. I will say nothing to thee; I will not take the cataract from thy eye, even wert thou to make more noise than all the horses in Bogdanets. When shavings are piled on a smouldering fire a blaze will burst up sooner or later in every case, but I will not blow, since there is no need, I think."

And not only did he not blow, but he even opposed Zbyshko and teased him like an old fox glad to trifle with youthful inexperience. So one day when Zbyshko said again that he would go to some distant war to rid himself of a life which was unendurable, the old man said to him,—

"While the lip under thy nose was bare I directed thee, but now—thou hast thy own will! If thou wish at all risks to trust in thy own wit and go—go."

Zbyshko sprang up with astonishment and sat erect in bed.

"How is this? Thou dost not oppose?"

"Why should I oppose? I only grieve terribly for our family which might perish with thee, but I may find a way to avoid this."

"How a way?" inquired Zbyshko, in alarm.

"How? Well, my years are considerable, no use in denying that but there is no lack of strength in my bones. Seest thou, some younger man might chance to please Yagenka—but as I was a friend of her father—who knows but I—"

"You were a friend of her father," answered Zbyshko,

—18