Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/103

 whisper something, seemed to seek someone’s hand and no one understood it all.

Venik cried out “Krista! Krista!” and Krista seemed to collect her ebbing strength into one ray of light, fixed both her eyes on Venik, fixed them on him with a smile and said, “We have found each other at last!”

Venik knelt as if in a dreadful ecstasy and said, “Krista! Krista! we have found each other.”

Then they carried her away from the stage, out into the open air, to the carriage and Venik accompanied her. He was seated in the carriage before they placed her in it, and when they laid her there he took her in his arms, and: he held her softly and warmly so that she might have been upon a bed of roses; he held her to his heart, his breath mingled itself with hers, his eyes intercepted the rays of light which fell from hers, and at intervals as if from the very depths of his soul, re-echoed the words, “Krista we have found one another.” But now it was as though Krista could speak no more in words, her spirit spoke only by a glance and by a smile, and in that glance was a smile.

And yet once again she forced herself to speak, “I knew that thou would’st come but I did not expect thee thus.”

The carriage drove along at a slow pace. It was in solemn pomp that Krista drove home to-day and