Yet this story I have told you cannot give anyone a fair or true
estimate of me, or my character, or ability. Anybody who heard or read
this story would suppose me to have been a vain, good-for-nothing sort
of fellow, who had missed his degree at college and lacked the ability
to fill any decent position, and therefore plunged into politics to make
his living, or perhaps to squander the inheritance he had received from
his ancestors. But, in reality, I had already, at the age of
six-and-twenty, occupied the position of a well-qualified assistant
physician, and at two-and-thirty the newspapers spoke of me as a famous
specialist and a great light of the profession. As I was established in
Vienna, where the competition is great, and Hungarians are pushed into
the rear if possible, my reputation could not have been without some
foundation at least. I was respectable and respected, very much in love
with my profession, and did not care a straw for politics. So, in order
to make you understand the change--nay, the entire revolution--which my
outward and inward man, my entire existence, had experienced, I must
acquaint you with a portion of my family troubles and domestic
relations, and I shall have to speak of my Uncle Diogenes.




VIII.

MY UNCLE DIOGENES.


First of all, I must inform you that my father was a very zealous
patriot, and mingled largely in state and political affairs. Of course,
in the great insurrection of the year 1848 he took an active share, and