Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/396

 farm; the farm is your own, and requires a hospodar without delay.

And now it seemed to Frank as though Bartos had announced to him some dire misfortune. Frank begged not to be dismissed to the farm until the morrow. But Bartos said, “You go there at once, just as you are, without saying a word to anyone.”

“Not even to Staza?” asked Frank.

“Not even to Staza,” said Bartos.

And so Frank departed that same day without saying a word to anyone.

When several days had elapsed, old Loyka said “I wonder where Frank is roving; ’tis several days since he has been at home.” “I have not seen him now for several days,” said Bartos, “I know not where he is roving.” I know not whether this answer contented Loyka, but certainly it did not content Staza, who was now constantly on the watch to see whether Loyka or Bartos would begin to mention Frank.

She would gladly have enquired a hundred times in the hour what had become of him, and yet she never summoned courage to ask even once.

“I wonder why Frank doesn’t come,” said old Loyka, after several days.

“I wonder he does not come,” said Bartos.

And it was the only thing she heard of him for several days, and yet she always watched with immeasurable anxiety for the occasion when Loyka