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 of Konopásek. But further words he was unable to utter. Perhaps, because the attorney made a violent gesture of protest or more likely, because the poor clerk’s whole face and body quivered as with chills and fever. He was choked with amazement, surprise, joy—all!

In an instant after, the counsellor remained alone in the office, but he had no more inclination to work. He arose after a while, put on his handsome fur cloak, thrust his hands into his shaggy modern woolly mittens and, closing the office, departed. He walked lightly, joyously and thought of his own six children looking forward to the delight they would have over the gifts which for many weeks were being collected in a rear room. But at times a sort of dejection and melancholy oppressed him. That was whenever his thoughts involuntarily reverted to Konopásek and his “wafers with shreds of fat,” as the clerk had described the dish.