But Pan Klen went in front of the church not to hear, "Hei! See! There
goes Klen!" But he went to see that which was dearest to him in
Zagrabie, in Ponikla, and in the whole world, Panna Olka, the daughter
of the tile-maker of Zagrabie. She fastened into his heart like a
wood-tick, with her eyes, which were like star-thistles, with her bright
face, and her lips red as cherries.
Pan Klen himself, during the rare moments in which be looked on this
world with sound judgment, and in which seeing that the tile-maker would
not give him his daughter, thought that it would be better to let her
go; but he felt, with terror, that he could not let her go; and with
great alarm he repeated to himself, "Hei! she has got in! Thou wilt not
pull her out with pincers!"
For her it was surely that he stopped wandering about, for her he lived;
and when he played on the organ he thought that she was listening, and
therefore he played better.
And she loving, to begin with, his "talent" for music, loved him
afterward for himself; and that Pan Klen was for her the dearest of all,
though he had a strange, dark face, eyes that were looking somewhere
else, a scant coat, a still scanter overcoat, and legs as long and as
slim as the legs of a stork.
But "the father," the tile-maker, though he, too, carried air in his
pockets for the most part, was unwilling to give Olka to Klen. "Any one
will look at the girl," said he; "why should such a fellow as Klen fix
her fate?" and he hardly let the man into the house, and sometimes he
would not let him in.
But when old Melnitski died, everything changed right away.
Klen, after signing the contract, went with all speed to the
tile-maker's.
"I do not say," said the tile-maker to him, "that something must surely
happen right away; but an organist is not a tramp." And, inviting him
into the house, he treated him to arrack, and feasted him as a guest.
And when Olka came in, the father rejoiced with the young people because
Klen had become a man; he would have his house, garden, and, next to the
canon, would be the great person in Ponikla.
So Klen had sat with them from midday till evening, to his own great
delight and to Olka's; and now he was returning by the road to Ponikla,
on squeaking snow and in twilight.
It was preparing for frost; but what cared Pan Klen? He merely went
faster and faster; and, while going, he thought of that day, thought of
Olka, and he was warm. A happier day in his life there had never been.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account