I, in sooth, have already borne it for a long time, but since thou so wishest, let us begin from this very day in earnest. But this I say to thee: whatsoever comes to pass, pity me thou must not, neither will I pity thee, that I think thou desirest not at my hands.”
On this he looked out of the window, and seeing Joseph going across the courtyard, summoned him, and forthwith again returned to the apartment. “And so it is beginning already,” said he, just as if it was the eve of a kind of battle.
After a brief moment Joseph came, and here old old Loyka was already seated by the table with some solemnity, because such an act could not be completed without a certain amount of ceremony.
“I have summoned thee,” began Loyka, “or more properly speaking I have begged thee to come, since I have already no more power to command, and I know not whether thou would’st obey. But I and thy mother, look you, desire to place the hospodarship in thy hands and Barushka’s. And thou art aware that in the agreement we have reserved to ourselves in case of such a contingency to wit: that we should quit the hospodarship within the course of six years:—to be rendered to us by thee a quarter of all the produce of the farm. So, then, I ask thee in the presence of the Lord God, wilt thou conscientiously fulfil thy part of the contract?”
