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was included in the patronage of the estate of Labutín, about five or six miles distant, and was the worst living in the whole of that extensive domain. Since the days of the Bohemian revolution Labutín had belonged to the noble family of Poc̓ernický of Poc̓ernic, who lived out here their good and evil days as time rolled on. This family was not distinguished for anything, except that they managed their estate well; that they generally had but few scions of their noble race; and that—as their dependents used to say maliciously—the lords had to wear the petticoats, while their ladies wore the breeches! This was certainly remarkably true of the last proprietor of Labutín, the late Baron Edmund Christian. He left behind him an able successor in his son Edmund, who at the time of Father Cvok was a little more than twenty-six years of age; but the real distress and absolute reigning power was his lady-mother, “Salomena, Milada, Baroness Poc̓ernická of Poc̓ernic and of Labutín.”

The old Baroness Salomena was a character in every respect. Her pen she wielded like a man, and in the affairs of everyday life she was more versed, experienced, and energetic than a dozen ordinary men. She did not