hemian people, the laboring class was our Hecuba. The problem must be solved, but not by us. Our nation had solved European questions twice, in the case of the Hussites and at the White Mountain,—he came very near getting excited (Doctor Řehák again moved impatiently and softly mumbled in his beard: “Eternally that one theory; gentlemen, it will some day spoil your reputation!”) That may be the task of other great nations, but we will simply take the shelled kernel,—thus the trusty man proceeded, and again he became humorous, and wove in anecdotes, and won applause, awakening a whole swarm of ideas, opinions, dreams, and wishes.
After that the conversation threw off its high buskin.
Hostinský (a fat, portly man, who had in his youth served for ten years in the infantry as trumpeter, and who was the second in command of the veterans,—the white ones,—a rich man whose yearning was all
