Hackney circles, "Persico's odi, puer, apparatus."

* * * * *

HEART-TO-HEART TALKS.

(_The Emperor of AUSTRIA and Count TISZA_.)

_Tisza_. So there is the full account, your Majesty, of men killed, wounded
and captured.

_The Emperor_. It is a gloomy list and I hardly can bear to consider it.

_Tisza_. Yes, and beyond the mere list of casualties by fighting there are
other matters to be considered. Food is scarce and of a poor quality, in
Hungary as elsewhere. The armies we can yet feed, but the home-staying men
and the women and children are a growing difficulty. It becomes more and
more impossible to provide them with sufficient nourishment.

_The Emperor_. It is strange, but in Austria the conditions are said to be
even worse.

_Tisza_. You are right, Sire, they are worse, much worse.

_The Emperor_. Well, we must lose no time then. We must buy great stocks of
food. More money must be spent.

_Tisza_. More money? But where is it to come from? Not from Hungary, where
we are within a narrow margin of financial collapse, and not in Austria,
where there is already to all intents and purposes a state of bankruptcy.