Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/104

98 power, now not even God can tear you from his claws, now he has bewitched you entirely!"

"He said that that witchcraft was love and that I should believe no other."

"Yes, yes, he said—love; I would tell him what love is, but all in vain now! What have you done? Why he is a ghoul, and he will draw your blood from your veins and then choke you, and you will not find rest even in your grave. And you might have been so happy!"

Those words frightened Victorka, but after a long pause she said: "All is lost; I shall go with him even if he lead me to perdition. Cover me; I am so cold!"

The blacksmith's wife covered her up with featherbeds, but Victorka was cold all the time and did not speak another word. The blacksmith's wife thought a great deal of Victorka, and although her giving away the charm made her very angry, still the fate of the girl, whom she now regarded as lost, filled her with grief. All that Victorka had told her she kept to herself. From that day Victorka lay like one dead. She did not speak, except some wandering words as if in her sleep; she did not ask for anything, she did not notice anybody. The blacksmith's wife did not leave her bedside, and exhausted all her store of knowledge to help her. But all was in vain. The parents grew more sorrowful day by day, and the lover went away each day with a heavier heart. The blacksmith's wife shook her head as she thought: "This is not of itself; how could it be, that none of those remedies that have helped so many others help her? That soldier has over-