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 Kavka soon found out that Jiří had lined his pockets with money,—you see, pleasure is expensive. The old fellow has gone back to Prague. He told Kavka that he would be back, that there were good people here, that nothing would please him better than to settle here,—a pleasant outlook!”

Again a pause. The commissary’s wife, seeing now a favorable moment for an effective speech, coughed, her eyes looking more cross-eyed than ever, and with a subdued voice she began to speak of that category of girls to which Lucy belonged, and she told of those houses where, they say, they are to be found, in tens and twenties, of those small rooms, of how they are furnished, of those orgies which are celebrated there in the hours of the night. The burgomistress looked all the time with a side glance at her: the commissary’s wife seemed to her, as she spoke, like a starved person that pictures to himself savory dishes; the other ladies lis-