Poldik looked in the direction whither the wherrymen pointed; there from the skiff Francis and Malka looked smilingly at him, and Francis shouted “Now she wishes me to tell you that she is faithless to you,” and Malka shouted to the shore “Wait a minute, Poldik, dear, I will be there directly.”
Poldik also laughed feebly, all laughed and joked, and so it may be concluded that they were all very merry at the Quay that noon.
Poldik waited for Malka a minute or two; but when she and Francis only dallied amid stream to teaze him, he shouted “Malka, I must now be off!”
“We too,” shouted Francis from the river to the bank; and he laughed, and before anyone expected it he was again pulling hard against the stream. The skiff was soon concealed behind larger craft, vanished from sight and, perhaps, was already again somewhere under Vysehrad.
Poldik still stood waiting for Malka, hoping that she might yet soon return. But she did not return, and the wherrymen began now to laugh at Poldik in earnest.
“She has taken a small outing,” said one; “She wants to enjoy her freedom a little longer,” “Francis is showing her the world,” said another; “What matter! Francis knows the world, and he knows how to show it, too,” said others again.
Such was the tenor of the observations sarcastically interchanged among the bystanders.
L
