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 his aunt; that the whole town was deeply agitated by that trickery, and that everybody pitied the councilloress for having so much shame cast upon her white hair.

The old lady replied emphatically, but curtly, that that was not true. The two ladies arose in undisguised indignation and went away.

The town was once more in a turmoil. The old lady was in the foreground of the situation. People wrung their hands in disgust over the blind love for that worldly man, and over her credulity.

Just then the doctor, the head of the Opposition, called upon Jiří. A great plan had ripened in his head. Jiří had been a neutral spectator of that war of the town mice, and only occasionally leaned towards the ruling party, as was proper for a rich man and a patrician. In the depth of his soul, the opposition of the democracy was distasteful to him. In Prague he had, in political discussions, often quoted with conviction Horace’s