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 pay Řehák back for it in his customary manner.)

The speech had very little effect at the table. Everybody felt the painfulness of the situation: Řehák had too sharply criticised the gentleman from Prague. Indeed, Řehák had gotten into the ranks of the Opposition by mistake. He was not liked there, but he remained imperturbed, like a blind man. He opposed every speech. He had but one good point: he did not get into discussions,—he said what he had to say, then he remained silent.

The trusty man began once more to speak tactfully. He smoothly deduced from the speech just made that in its main points it exactly agreed with what he himself would have said in regard to the social question. He then sketched conditions abroad and at home. He proclaimed that our nation never dared show its color, or it would cease to exist. The townspeople and the peasantry,—in them was the strength of the real Bo-