Page:Poet Lore, volume 31, 1920.djvu/512

492 Gülich (Gallantly).—Gehorsamster.

Roubínek (With chilly dignity).—Morning to you!

Gülich.—Did you notice, madam, how the steward ran away?

Mrs. Rettig (Merrily).—Surely not on my account? Why should he run away? He has a clear conscience. He did not paint over Chadima's shop sign by night, or have the thing done for him. Some one else is responsible for that exploit.

Gülich.—Ah, so you have already heard of it! But the steward was afraid that you would give him an examination in Bohemian grammar.

Mrs. Rettig.—I couldn't pass one myself. For that there are specially educated men.

Gülich.—Who wants that of them?

Mrs. Roller.—And why should ladies too have to learn literary Bohemian? It is hard.

Mrs. Rettig.—I must confess that as a girl I could neither read nor write Bohemian. But it is not hard.

Mrs. Roubínek.—Now you give lessons in it yourself.

Mrs. Rettig.—Only from love of our native land do I strive to revive the mother tongue somewhat among those of my sex, and in general to help their souls to rise above the commonplace.

Mrs. Roller.—To make girls learn all that!

Mrs. Rettig.—It is necessary for them to be educated.

Mrs. Roubínek.—All of them?

Mrs. Rettig.—Each according to her capacity.

Mrs. Roller.—Then we shall not be able to get a single hired girl.

Mrs. Rettig.—We should not regard her as an inferior creature.

Gülich (Bitingly).—And I suppose that they should likewise be patriots!

Mrs. Rettig.—Each and every one of them.

Gülich.—Das kann man nicht ernst nehmen. Why all this? Am I to break my head over incomprehensible words? Am I to read those little books on coarse paper and leave my own Goethe and Schiller?

Mrs. Rettig (Hastily).—No indeed, we read them too.