Page:The grandmother; a story of country life in Bohemia.pdf/93

Rh ine how he torments me! Why, I cannot even say my prayers properly nor sleep in peace; for those eyes pursue me everywhere," said Victorka bursting into tears.

Why don't you send him word not to follow you, that you can't endure him, that he is salt to your eyes?" said her companions.

"Why, haven't I done so? To be sure, I did not speak to him myself; how could I, when he comes like a shadow? But I sent word to him by one of his comrades."

"Well, and what did he say?" asked the girls. "He said that no one had any right to tell him where he should or should not go; that besides, he had not as yet told me that he loved me; and that, therefore, I should not send him word that I wouldn't have him!"

"Of all things, such rudeness!" frowned the girls. "What does he think of himself? We ought to revenge ourselves upon him."

"Better let such an one alone; he could bewitch you," suggested the more prudent ones.

"Lack-a-daisy! what can he do to us? To do this he would be obliged to have something we had worn next to our bodies, and none of us would give him that, and we will accept nothing from him; then what need we fear? So, dear Victorka, don't you be afraid; we will go with you everywhere, and some day that churl will catch it from us," said the more courageous of her friends.

But Victorka looked about timidly and was not at all comforted by their words. She sighed: "Oh that God himself would free me from this cross!"

What Victorka had confided to her mates did