“Do you remember the last time we met? Up in the woods in a fog? And while we were trying to guess what the future had in store for us the rebellion had already started in the town.”
“Then it must have been about the 30th of October.”
“Since then everything has collapsed. Is there any force on earth that could repair the havoc?”
“Nothing ever can be repaired,” said my visitor, pensively. “The evil always remains; but one can raise something good by its side that will progress and leave the evil behind it.”
“But is there anybody who can do this? We’re not organised, and everybody is so despondent and tired. As long as this is so, nothing will ever happen. It is this that has got to be cured first. I was thinking about it just before you came: in defeat women are always greater than men. If they could only be roused and set going they might restore the faith that everybody seems to have lost.”
“I’m already negotiating with the various Catholic women’s institutions,” the Countess said, “and I hope to bring about their unity.”
“I don’t want the unity of creeds,” said I; “I want the unity of Hungarians. The forces of Destruction have united in one camp. All its apostles work together. Why shouldn’t the forces of Regeneration unite as well?”
“I’m going to begin where I’m rooted,” answered my guest with an enigmatic smile, while taking leave. “You’re like all Hungarians. You want to do everything at once and carry everything before you....”
She was right. She had started to work in the right way.