has had to suffer for it. It is a sad thing that one man’s joy is another man’s sorrow. But I will make up to her child what she has done for me in giving up her place at your side to me. Just now, before you came into the room, I promised her that I would sooner lose my hand than touch a hair on her little girl’s head or let it be touched. She will see if I keep my vow faithfully when she comes to visit her. Not once shall she have to change her linen, not once to make her bed. She will always look as if she had grown out of the water, poor little mite! I shall expect her every night. I shall put ashes on the floor round the cradle and look for her footprints; they say, spirits do leave footprints; ever so light and feeble, hardly to be seen. You have heard that, haven’t you?’
Lukas nodded, but he hardly knew to what he was assenting or what she was talking about, although his eyes were fixed on her lips. But he was not looking at them so as to catch the sense of the words she was speaking. His eyes sought them because they were so charmingly red and cherry-ripe. Of course, Vendulka was now ten times more beautiful than she had been when he had roused the whole village for love of her, and exasperated
