Chapters 19-20 Summary

Four university students home for the summer, meet on the kapia: Janko Stiković, Velimir Stavanović, Jacov Herak, and Ranko Mihailović, listened to by younger people Nikola Glasičanin, Vlado Marić, and the school mistresses, Zorka and Zagorka. Stiković and Zorka have kissed and a magazine has badly published his article, leaving Stiković preoccupied when Herak disputes his thesis. Later, Stiković and Glasičanin, former best friends, clash over Zorka, but are interrupted by another debate.

Toma Galus is a poet and debater and Fehim Bahtijarević a silent and proud Beg (honorific title). Both are bound for university in Vienna, Galus to study philosophy en route to being a dilettante, and Bahtijarević to study oriental languages, which Galus says is wrong for Muslims, who seek to defend the old order. Bahtijarević thinks but does not say: change is unhealthy, human desire is...