threatened that they would not dance with her unless she would renounce her “dangerous opinions,” she retired from the room with a defiant smile. The dignified rebuke which Johanna thus administered to those unpatriotic youths made her a heroine in the eyes of her music teacher, Professor Mužák. In the winter of 1852 she was married to the professor, and the union was one of perfect harmony. Madame Mužák’s happiness was complete until the death of her only child. This bereavement brought on a settled melancholy, which threatened to develop into insanity. By her physician’s advice she entered on a systematic course of study. The effect was magical. Rejoicing in her new strength, Madame Mužák began her brilliant career as a novelist; and before she was sixty she had written a hundred and thirteen stories, besides biographies, histories and essays. She is known throughout her own land as a powerful advocate of democracy; she has spent the earnings from her books lavishly on benevolent institutions; and she is equally revered
