This generation has achieved something colossal. My eyes
fill with tears when I see these men. For six or seven years they
have shed their blood in these wars without a murmur, they have
fought in a hundred battles without taking breath, they have neither
counted the cost nor spared their labor, and one feels astounded at
living amid such heroes, who seem to belong to a fairy tale. This
generation has done more than its duty, and if now it is weary and
will rest for thirty years in peace, surely no one can reproach it."
Schrotter spoke with emotion, and Wilhelm who would not grieve his
friend by a contradiction, repressed a retaliation which rose to his
lips, and silently took leave of him.
The life of the community, as of single individuals, went back
gradually into its old channels, and so it did with Dr. Schrotter.
He had lived hitherto in an old-fashioned quarter of the town, and
now, to be as near as possible to Wilhelm, he rented a house in the
Mittelstrasse. He established a private hospital in the old
Schonhauserstrasse, in the midst of artisans and very poor people,
and there he spent daily many hours, treating for charity all those
who came to him for help. He soon had a larger attendance than was
comfortable, and had to extend the work, without which he could not
have lived.
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