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The Poor Plutocrats by Mór Jókai
page 14 of 384 (03%)
comrades, and therefore had to do the best he could to raise the wind.
Another failing of Koloman's was that he would not learn Latin, and in
consequence thereof he had to suffer many things. Old Lapussa and his
son John indeed had no notion whatever of the Latin tongue. The former
in his youthful days had never gone to school at all, because he was
occupied in building up a business. The latter had not gone to school in
_his_ youth because by that time his people were already rich and he
considered it beneath him. The consequence was that neither father nor
son had a proper idea on the simplest subjects, except what they picked
up on their travels. Still that was no reason why Koloman should not
learn, but as the tutor had his hands full already with little Maksi,
Koloman was obliged to go to the national school in order to become a
wiser man than his forbears.

Poor Henrietta often slaved away for hours at a time with her younger
brother sitting at the table by her side, helping him to struggle
through the genders, declensions, conjugations, or whatever else the
infernal things were called; and the end of it all was that, at last,
she learnt to know Latin better than Koloman, and secretly translated
all his exercises from Cornelius Nepos and the Bucolics of Virgil for
him.

But we must not linger any longer over these Latin lessons, for a much
more important event claims our attention--Mr. John is coming home, and
we must hasten forward to admire him.

Mr. John Lapussa was a perfect prototype of the whole family. His
extraordinarily lanky pinched figure seemed even lankier than it was by
nature because he always carried his head so high: he peered down from
that elevation upon humanity at large as if there was something the
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