The Three Comrades - Livres de poche

Excerpt: ...money to purchase it, it would be worthwhile to do so." "Oh, Bacha Filina!" The lady took the man's hard right hand into her small ones. "How can I thank you enough for this good and beautiful advice? I don't know if my ready money will suffice, but I have beautiful jewelry, and when I sell that, we will have something to start with at least. I am not altogether so unfamiliar with managing as you may think; I am the daughter of a farmer. But who will buy this for me? My lawyer is not here." "Leave Ondrejko with the doctor. Ride to the administrator's office and buy the estate yourself. He has orders to sell it. Do not begin to deal about the boy before the estate is yours. At least, that is what I think. But today let Ondrejko know that you are his mother, that the boy may not suffer longer. Come to us in the afternoon. I will send Palko for you." Filina arose. "I would not have come to you while you are still weak, but we must hurry with the buying, and Ondrejko cared so much that he shook all over, thinking that surely he had said something bad to you so that you fainted. The boy is very tender. He needs not only strengthening with me-that is only for the body-but his heart needs a mother. The God in the heavens has become his Father. Good-bye, then." "Bacha Filina," the lady stopped the man. "Do you know why I parted with De Gemer? Or do you think that because I am a singer, I have left him like an unfaithful wife?" "The doctor told me that my lord had wronged you. I do not ask more. Everyone of us has enough of his own sins. God sees us and knows us. Do not judge that ye be not judged." The deep voice of Filina sounded almost gentle. He shook her hand and left. "Uncle Filina! Did you already return from the city?" sounded a voice from the clearing where he went to look at the flock. Palko ran to meet him. In his hand he carried a basket full of beautiful mushrooms. "I was not in the city, Palko; but what are you doing here?" Filina was...