"'93," said Truyn, with his tone of dry irony.
"We really ought to draw a cordon round the Austrian throne to protect it against the pestilential flood of democracy," said Sempaly very gravely. "Ilsenbergh you must petition the upper house."
"Your jokes are very much out of place," said the countess, "the matter is serious."
"Oh, no! not for us," said Truyn. "Our people are too long suffering."
"They are sound at the core," interrupted Ilsenbergh with dramatic emphasis.
"They do not yet know the meaning of liberty," said Sempaly laughing, "and to them equality is a mere abstraction--a metaphysical delicacy."
"They are thoroughly good and loyal!" exclaimed Ilsenbergh, "and they know...."
"Oh!" cried Sempaly, "they know very little and that is your safeguard. When once their eyes are opened your life will cease to be secure. If I had been a bricklayer I should certainly have been a socialist," and he crossed his arms and looked defiantly at his audience.
"A socialist!" cried Ilsenbergh indignantly. "You!--never. No, you could not have been a socialist; your religious feelings would have preserved you from such wickedness!"
"Hm!" replied Sempaly suspiciously, and Truyn said with a twist of his lips: