Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/225

 “And went to law with you about every measure of his pensioner’s share of the harvest. He never wanted for anything, he had already laid by so much for himself, and he kept back from us enough for ten people to have lived upon, and then he went to law with his son.”

“But I lived with him before in peace and happiness, even now I feel sorry for it all.”

“Don’t speak such words, peasant. Where do people ever treat their pensioners differently. What is given to the pensioner (vyminkar) is a lost thing to the farm, particularly if he has no need of anything, just as, in fact, your father had not.”

“You always deafen my conscience, wife.”

“Yes, when conscience tells thee to reckon five for nine. And when it dubs me an ambitious worldling—is that conscience?”

Such and similar remarks were made by this woman beside the corpse of the venerable centenarian, her father-in-law. The grave which generally closes the lips of slander had no such effect upon her.

Then her eyes fell on a small table which contained, as she was aware, a considerable amount of her late father-in-law’s property. She reconnoitred the small table, found a key in the drawer, pointed it out to her husband, and said well delighted—

“You see we have the key in our hands; it will be ours, ours, too, will be all these savings and not