The Castle (43 page)

And, in fact, it does strike people as odd that she is still in the taproom. Being a barmaid is a great deal, and from that point of view the liaison with Klamm seems very credible, but if the taproom girl has once become Klamm's mistress, why docs he leave her in the taproom, and so long? Why does he not take her up higher?

One can tell people a thousand times that there is no contradiction here, that Klamm has definite reasons for acting as he does, or that some day, perhaps even at any moment now, Frieda's elevation will suddenly come about. All this does not make much impression.

People have definite notions and in the long run will not let themselves be distracted from them by any talk, however ingenious. Nobody any longer doubted that Frieda was Klamm's mistress, even those who obviously knew better were by now too tired to doubt it.

"Be Klamm's mistress, and to hell with it," they thought, "but if you are, we want to see signs of it in your getting on too."

But one saw no signs of it and Frieda stayed in the taproom as before and secretly was thoroughly glad that things remained the way they were. But she lost prestige with people, that, of course, she could not fail to notice, indeed she usually noticed things even before they existed. A really beautiful, lovable girl, once she has settled down in the taproom, does not need to display any arts. As long as she is beautiful, she will remain taproom maid, unless some particularly unfortunate accident occurs. But a girl like Frieda must be continually worried about her situation, naturally she has enough sense not to show it, on the contrary, she is in the habit of complaining and cursing the situation. But in secret she keeps a weather-eye open all the time. And so she saw how people were becoming indifferent, Frieda's appearance on the scene was no longer anything that made it worth anyone's while even to glance up, not even the menservants bothered about her any more, they had enough sense to stick to Olga and girls of that sort, from the landlord's behaviour, too, she noticed that she was becoming less and less indispensable, one could not go on for ever inventing new stories about Klamm, everything has its limits, and so dear Frieda decided to try something new.

If anyone had only been capable of seeing through it immediately!

Pepi had sensed it, but unfortunately she had not seen through it.

Frieda decided to cause a scandal, she, Klamm's mistress, throws herself away on the first comer, if possible on the lowest of the low. That will make a stir, that will keep people talking for a long time, and at last, at last, people will remember what it means to be Klamm's mistress and what it means to throw away this honour in the rapture of a new love.

The only difficulty was to find the suitable man with whom the clever game could be played. It must not be an acquaintance of Frieda's, not even one of the men-servants for he would probably have looked at her askance and have walked on, above all he would not have remained serious enough about it and for all her ready tongue it would have been impossible to spread the story that she, Frieda, had been attacked by him, had not been able to defend herself against him and in an hour when she did not know what she was doing had submitted to him. And although it had to be one of the lowest of the low, it nevertheless had to be one of whom it could be made credible that in spite of his crude, coarse nature he longed for nobody but Frieda herself and had no loftier desire than heavens above! - to marry Frieda.

But although it had to be a common man, if possible even lower than a servant, much lower than a servant, yet it must be one on whose account one would not be laughed to scorn by every girl, one in whom another girl, a girl of sound judgement, might also at some time find something attractive.

But where does one find such a man?

Another girl would probably have spent her whole life looking for him. Frieda's luck brought the Land Surveyor into the taproom to her, perhaps on the very evening when the plan had come into her mind for the first time.

The Land Surveyor!

Yes, what was K. thinking of?

What special things had he in mind?

Was he going to achieve something special?

A good appointment, a distinction?

Was he after something of that sort?

Well, then he ought to have set about things differendy from the very beginning. After all, he was a nonentity, it was heart-rending to see his situation. He was a Land Surveyor, that was perhaps something, so he had learnt something, but if one didn't know what to do with it, then again it was nothing after all. And at the same time he made demands, without having the slightest backing, made demands not outright, but one noticed that he was making some sort of demands, and that was, after all, infuriating.

Did he know that even a chambermaid was lowering herself if she talked to him for any length of time? And with all these special demands he tumbled headlong into the most obvious trap on the very first evening. Wasn't he ashamed of himself? What was it about Frieda that he found so alluring? Could she really appeal to him, that skinny, sallow thing?

Ah no, he didn't even look at her, she only had to tell him she was Klamm's mistress, for him that was still a novelty, and so he was lost! But now she had to move out, now, of course, there was no longer any room for her in the Herrenhof. Pepi saw her the very same morning before she moved out, the staff all came running up, after all, everyone was curious to see the sight.

And so great was her power even then that she was pitied, she was pitied by everyone, even by her enemies. So correct did her calculations prove to be from the very start.

Having thrown herself away on such a man seemed incomprehensible to everyone and a blow of fate, the little kitchenmaids, who, of course, admire every barmaid, were inconsolable. Even Pepi was touched, not even she could remain quite unmoved, even though her attention was actually focused on something else. She was struck by how little sad Frieda actually was. After all it was at bottom a dreadful misfortune that had come upon her, and indeed she was behaving as though she were very unhappy, but it was not enough, this acting could not deceive Pepi. So what was it that was keeping her going? Perhaps the happiness of her new love? Well, this possibility could not be considered. But what else could it be? What gave her the strength to be as coolly pleasant as ever even to Pepi, who was already regarded as her successor?

Pepi had not then had the time to think about it, she had had too much to do getting ready for the new job. She was probably to start on the job in a few hours and still had not had her hair done nicely, had no smart dress, no fine underclothes, no decent shoes.

All this had to be procured in a few hours. If one could not equip oneself properly, then it was better to give up all thought of the situation, for then one was sure of losing it in the very first half-hour.

Well, she succeeded partly.

She had a special gift for hair-dressing, once, indeed, the landlady had sent for her to do her hair, it was a matter of having a specially light hand, and she had it, of course, her abundant hair was the sort you could do anything you like with. There was help forthcoming in the matter of the dress too. Her two colleagues kept faith with her, it was after all a sort of honour for them, too, if a girl out of their own group was chosen to be barmaid, and then later on, when she had come to power, Pepi would have been able to provide them with many advantages. One of the girls had for a long time been keeping some expensive material, it was her treasure, she had often let the others admire it, doubtless dreaming of how some day she would make magnificent use of it and - this had been really very nice of her - now, when Pepi needed it, she sacrificed it. And both girls had very willingly helped her with the sewing, if they had been sewing it for themselves they could not have been keener.

That was indeed a very merry, happy job of work. They sat, each on her bunk, one over the other, sewing and singing, and handed each other the finished parts and the accessories, up and down. When Pepi thought of it, it made her heart ever heavier to think that it was all in vain and that she was going back to her friends with empty hands. What a misfortune and how frivolously brought about, above all by K.

How pleased they had all been with the dress at that time, it seemed a pledge of success and when at the last moment it turned out that there was still room for another ribbon, the last doubt vanished. And was it not really beautiful, this dress? It was crumpled now and showed some spots, the fact was, Pepi had no second dress, had to wear this one day and night, but it could still be seen how beautiful it was, not even that accursed Barnabas woman could produce a better one. And that one could pull it tight and loosen it again as one liked, on top and at the bottom, so that although it was only one dress, it was so changeable - this was a particular advantage and was actually her invention.

Of course it wasn't so difficult to make clothes for her, Pepi didn't boast of it, there it was - everything suited young, healthy girls. It was much harder to get hold of underclothing and boots, and here was where the failure actually began. Here, too, her girl friends helped out as best they could, but they could not do much. It was, after all, only coarse underclothing that they got together and patched up, and instead of high-heeled little boots she had to make do with slippers, of a kind one would rather hide than show.

They comforted Pepi. After all, Frieda was not dressed so very beautifully either, and sometimes she went round looking so sluttish that the guests preferred to be served by the cellarmen rather than by her. This was in fact so, but Frieda could afford to do that, she already enjoyed favour and prestige. When a lady for once makes an appearance looking besmirched and carelessly dressed, that is all the more alluring - but in the case of a novice like Pepi?

And besides, Frieda could not dress well at all, she was simply devoid of all taste. If a person happened to have a sallow skin, then, of course, she must put up with it, but she needn't go around, like Frieda, wearing a low-cut cream blouse to go with it, so that one's eyes were dazzled by all that yellow. And even if it hadn't been for that, she was too mean to dress well. Everything she earned, she hung on to, nobody knew what for. She didn't need any money in her job, she managed by means of lying and trickery, this was an example Pepi did not want to and could not imitate, and that was why it was justifiable that she should smarten herself up like this in order to get herself thoroughly noticed right at the beginning. Had she only been able to do it by stronger means, she would, in spite of all Frieda's cunning, in spite of all K.'s foolishness, have been victorious.

After all, it started very well.

The few tricks of the trade and things it was necessary to know she had found out about well beforehand. She was no sooner in the taproom than she was thoroughly at home there.

Nobody missed Frieda at the job. It was only on the second day that some guests inquired what had become of Frieda.

No mistake was made, the landlord was satisfied, on the first day he had been so anxious that he spent all the time in the taproom, later he only came in now and then, finally, since the money in the till was correct - the takings were on the average even a little higher than in Frieda's time - he left everything to Pepi.

She introduced innovations.

Frieda had even supervised the men-servants, at least partly, particularly when anyone was looking, and this not out of keenness for the work, but out of meanness, out of a desire to dominate, out of fear of letting anyone else invade her rights, Pepi on the other hand allotted this job entirely to the cellarmen, who, after all, are much better at it. In this way she had more time left for the private rooms, the guests got quick service; nevertheless she was able to chat for a moment with everyone, not like Frieda, who allegedly reserved herself entirely for Klamm and regarded every word every approach, on the part of anyone else as an insult to Klamm.

This was, of course, quite clever of her, for, if for once she did allow anyone to get near her, it was an unheard-of favour. Pepi, however, hated such arts, and anyway they were no use at the beginning. Pepi was kind to everyone and every, one requited with her kindness. All were visibly glad of the change. When the gentlemen, tired after their work, were at last free to sit down to their beer for a little while, one could positively transform them by a word, by a glance, by a shrug of the shoulders. So eagerly did all hands stroke Pepi's curls that she had to do her hair again quite ten times a day, no one could resist the temptation offered by these curls and bows, not even K., who was otherwise so absent-minded.

So exciting days flew past, full of work, but successful. If only they had not flown past so quickly, if only there had been a little more of them! Four days were too little even if one exerted oneself to the point of exhaustion, perhaps the fifth day would have been enough, but four days were too little. Pepi had, admittedly, gained wellwishers and friends even in four days, if she had been able to trust all the glances she caught, when she came along with the beer-mugs, she positively swam in a sea of friendliness, a clerk by the name of Bartmeier was crazy about her, gave her this little chain and locket, putting his picture into the locket, which was, of course, brazen of him.

This and other things had happened, but it had only been four days, in four days, if Pepi set about it, Frieda could be almost, but still not quite, forgotten. And yet she would have been forgotten, perhaps even sooner, had she not seen to it by means of her great scandal that she kept herself talked about, in this way she had become new to people, they might have liked to see her again simply for the sake of curiosity.

What they had come to find boring to the point of disgust had, and this was the doing of the otherwise entirely uninteresting K., come to have charm for them again. Of course they would not have given up Pepi as long as she was there in front of them and exerting influence by her presence, but they were mostly elderly gentlemen, slow and heavy in their habits, it took some time for them to get used to a new barmaid, and however advantageous the exchange might be, it still took a few days, took a few days against the gentlemen's own will, only five days perhaps, but four days were not enough, in spite of everything Pepi still counted only as the temporary barmaid.