"O Thou, My Austria!"

Book excerpt: "O Thou, My Austria!" is a countryside romance novel set in Bohemia. Major Paul Von Leskjewitsch, proprietor of the estates of Lauschitz and Zirkow in southwestern Bohemia, had been for twenty years on the retired list, and was a prosperous agriculturist. He had formerly been a very well-to-do officer, the most steady and trustworthy in the whole regiment, always in funds, and very seldom in scrapes. At present the Paul Leskjewitsches had long been known for a model couple in all the country round. Countess Zelenitz stoutly maintained that they were the least unhappy couple of her acquaintance,--that they were past-masters of their art; she meant the most difficult of all arts,--that of getting along with each other. The two had no children, but fate had bestowed on them a niece who lived with them. And when Major Leskjewitsch had stumbled upon his niece's autobiographical manuscript, he had read it, finally learning about her true feelings of Harry, an excellent soldier that he hoped would marry his niece...