Page:Magdalen by J S Machar.pdf/37

 of verses on him, analyze his soul for you,—and yet, contrary to all proprieties, I have forgotten to describe him or at least to introduce him! You have probably said ten times: behold, the older generation is right when it says that the younger is slovenly in everything! Reader, I ask you in all earnestness, recall all the books that you have read, recall all the descriptions of people, which authors have given with praiseworthy minuteness! Your word of honor, tell me: are you able to reproduce a single one of them? I am not.

If I told you that my hero had scanty hair, as is the case with modern youths, a pointed moustache, dark eyes with nothing in them to attract you, his nose not more characteristic, a swarthy face, a not more distinctive figure, long nails on short fingers, that he was fashionably dressed,—tell me, would you know him any better? Then that is superfluous. His given name was Jiří.