Page:Poet Lore, volume 35, 1924.pdf/379

 Klementina (In desperation).—That which is destroying my family is not honorable, but terrifying, awful!

Dr. Svoboda.—Stop! You are now treading upon sacred ground, not only the sacred ground upon which I stand, but the entire nation!

Klementina (With the deepest agitation).—What do I care about your nation, your people, when my children are to be sacrificed for the sake of a mere abstraction, an idea! This is sheer madness!

Dr. Svoboda.—Call it whatever you will. But I cannot deal a foul blow at my nation and I will not allow my name to be spat upon!

(The servant enters with messages.)

Servant.—I pray you, forgive the intrusion. Special messages have arrived.

( signs, opens the messages, and reads with growing amazement.)

Jaroslav.—Ah! The message from Prague! (Servant leaves.)

Dr. Svoboda (With growing excitement and agitation).—What is happening? (Reads.) “We find it impossible to tell you, dear friend, how painfully your decision is operating against us.” What is this? “Upon you we were building afortress of faith, but your telegram announces a fearful reality.” Which telegram? What is it all about? What does it mean? “To dispose of your estate in the most critical moment, and to offer it to us at such a price, to desire to profit in such manner at the expense of our hardship ”—For Heaven’s sake!

Klementina.—What is happening?

JarolsavJaroslav [sic] (To himself) —Aha! They are rejecting!

Dr. Svoboda (Reading).—“We each of us contributed large sums of money from our estates, and we have no robbers’ bank to draw upon, from which we might meef the prices, which on all sides, the most shameless corruption is demanding. No one suspected how many there are of these titled gentlemen who are pressing their estates upon us for sale. And behold, now comes even Dr. Svoboda, that patriot of patriots, taken at his word, who asks us to pay for his estate fully 150,000 florins above its worth. This is shameless, terrible!”—Yes, this is terrible!