Page:Sienkiewicz - The knights of the cross.djvu/716

 278 And he shouted so that old Matsko, thinking that some strange thing had happened, rushed into the room. When he saw Yagenka raised aloft by his nephew, he was astonished that everything had passed with such unlooked-for rapidity, and he exclaimed,—

"In the name of the Father and the Son, restrain thyself, boy!"

Zbyshko rushed toward him, placed Yagenka on the floor, and both wished to kneel down, but before they could do so Matsko seized them in his bony arms and pressed them with all his strength to his breast.

"Praised be He!" said the old man. "I knew that it would come to this, but still my delight! God bless you! It will be easier for me to die now. The girl is like the purest of pure gold. Before God and the world! In truth! Let come now what may, since I have lived to this delight. God has visited, but He has comforted us. We must go right away and tell Yasko. Ei, if Zyh were alive now!—and the abbot— But I will take the place of both, for in truth, I so love you that I am ashamed to tell it."

And though he had in his bosom a heart that was steeled, he was so filled with emotion that something pressed his throat; so he kissed Zbyshko again, and after that Yagenka on both cheeks, and coughing out, half in tears, "Honey, not a woman!" he went to the stables to have the horses saddled.

When he had gone from the room he stumbled with delight against sunflowers growing in front of the house, and began to look at their dark disks surrounded with yellow leaves; he was just like a drunken man.

"Well! There is many a seed there," said he, "but God grant that there will be a greater number of Grady in Bogdanets." Then going toward the stables he began again to mutter and to count,—

"Bogdanets, the abbot's property, Spyhov, Mochydoly—God always knows whither He is taking things. Old Vilk's day will come, and it is worth while to buy Brozova—fine meadows!"

Meanwhile Yagenka and Zbyshko came out to the front of the house, joyous, happy, radiant as the sun.

"Uncle!" called Zbyshko from afar.

The old man turned toward them, stretched out his arms, and cried out, as he might in the woods,—

"Hop! hop! Come to me!"