of vagabonds does not take up its quarters here a night longer”, added the young bride with the same asperity.
“Joseph?” said Loyka’s aged wife, and it was half an interrogation and half an asservation that Joseph would do no such thing. She pronounced it with a taunting smile as if she had said to Barushka, “You are quite mistaken in Joseph, I assure you.”
“Yes, Joseph”, said Barushka.
“Joseph see to it that the musicians be warned off the farm who have been here all their lives?” inquired the elder peasant woman in the same manner.
“What has been need not be always. There are things which after a time go out of fashion.”
On this Joseph rose, and said, “Pray, why should I not tell them? I will go and tell them at once.”
Barushka looked at her mother-in-law as though she would say, “Now, what have you got to say?” and she smiled tauntingly.
“And this is the girl who was willing to take me on her arms”, thought the peasant woman to herself, and all at once she seemed to stand on the edge of an abyss.
And Joseph, exactly as though he and Barushka had just finished a game of cards, quitted the apartment and betook himself to the musicians.
“Will you be so good as to clear off at once from here”, said he. “My wife does not wish to have people hanging about the place, and I do not wish it either.”
Here the musicians felt as if they had received a severe shock. “Well, the Lord God reward you”, said they, collecting their instruments in order that they might clear out, and they looked at Joseph as though they did not yet know whether it was jest or earnest. But it was earnest, for when they had gone out across the threshold he did not call them back nor when they crossed the court-yard, only the dogs whined a sad farewell to their old friends who went out by the gate on to the village green.
Joseph still remained by the gate until the musicians were fairly out of sight. And here the family of the kalounkar [tape-pedlar], the cloth-pedlar, and all who were still present, looked at him in a kind of uncertainty to see whether it affected them also.
But Joseph did not leave them long in suspense. He leered at their things, he leered at them, and said, “You must take it all away this evening.”
