"Or of laughter."
"If of laughter, then it is egoism."
"Yes, that is so. My partisanship begins with me and ends with me."
Gronski impatiently smacked his lips; while the editor took off his spectacles and, winking with his eyes, began to wipe them with a handkerchief.
"I beg pardon," he said with great phlegm. "Your party affiliations may be very interesting but I wanted to speak of others."
"Less interesting--"
But the old journalist turned to Gronski.
"Our socialists," he said, "have undertaken the reconstruction of a new house, forgetting that we live huddled together in only a few rooms, and that in the others dwell strangers who will not assent to it; or rather, on the contrary, they will permit the demolition of those few rooms, but will not allow their reconstruction."
"Then it is better to blow up the whole structure with dynamite," interjected Swidwicki.
But this remark was passed over in silence; after which Gronski said: