Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/152

 the oath, and seemed to say “I really scarce know why a fellow should swear after all.” And all the time his mind was occupied with Malka more than with anything else. She was for the present complete mistress of Poldik’s mental economy, and he was delighted to think what roguish eyes she had, what pretty dimples when she laughed, what a fresh healthy face, in a word, that she was a girl whom anyone would turn to look at as she passed.

Afterwards it came to pass, that it was not enough to give her his hand in along good-bye, but he also greeted her with a shake of the hand when she brought the dinner, and he laughed more frequently during the meal, and said “Troth, troth, Malka, it is charming.” After this he always gave his horses an extra feed of oats, so that now none of his comrades passed them without measuring them with a look which seemed to say, “Look at him! he means to turn his jades into horses still.” It is true they still pulled like jades, but already they might any day have trotted away like horses.

Once, I know not by what accident, he was behind his time in driving to the mid-day halting place. Hitherto, be it understood, he had always been first with his cart at the mid-day trysting place, and it was only after he had given his horses their first feed of oats that Malka made her appearance. But owing to this delay it happened that he overtook Malka on the road, indeed in one of the