Wolf Among Wolves (105 page)

Frau Eva walked to the office; she had to inform young Pagel of the dismissals. But the place was closed and the customary notice dangling on the door: “Urgent inquiries at the Villa.…” But in the Villa there was only the disconsolate Lotte, and when the dismissed servants came to get their papers
from the office they would see the notice inviting them back to the Villa. Confusion would be complete!

She shrugged her shoulders—things were like that—and she went on to the Manor, telling herself that there at least everything would be the same as ever. But in front stood a cart on which trunks were being loaded, and at that moment up drove the ancient landau with her father’s fat Hanover horses.

“What’s taking place here, Elias?” she asked, astonished.

“Good morning, madam. The lady and gentleman are going on a journey,” reported old Elias, taking off his little cap.

She ran into the house and up the stairs to her mother’s room. In her armchair Frau von Teschow was sitting in coat and hat; behind her was old Kuckhoff with a bundle of sticks and umbrellas under her arm. Frau von Teschow was directing the maids, who were drawing linen dustsheets over the furniture.

“So there you are, child,” said the old lady. “We shouldn’t have gone away, of course, without coming over to look in on you again.”

“But where are you going to so suddenly, Mamma? Papa never said a word about it yesterday.”

“My dear child! Last night! It was unbearable.” Holding her head, the old lady sighed dolefully. “Oh, why did your husband also have to bring these convicts to our dear Neulohe?”

“But they’ve gone away now, Mamma.”

“Run away! I never slept a wink all night. I could hear people prowling around all the time. The stairs creaked, and once I heard giggling there … Yes, exactly as you are giggling now, you stupid goose, Marta!” said Frau von Teschow, angrily rebuking a maid who turned crimson.

“You imagined that, Mamma. It would be the gendarme on guard in the street. Their officer said …”

“My dear child, I believe only my ears! I’m going away. Your father for once is thoughtfulness itself. We shall go first of all to Berlin. Hotel Kaiserhof, Eva, if there should be anything. We’re not going to be murdered in our beds! Oh, no!” And encumbered with her sticks and umbrellas, Aunt Jutta emphatically announced that she preferred the Kaiserhof to the churchyard.

Frau Eva saw it was useless to speak against the journey. The only puzzling thing was her father’s prompt consent, for usually no complaints whatever from his wife would drive him away from his beloved Neulohe. But there was one good thing about it: she would be able to get a maid from her mother without difficulty.

Frau von Teschow shook her head. “You are always having trouble with your servants. That comes of spoiling them. And you don’t send them to my
evening prayers anymore!” In the end, however, after many a pointed remark, she declared herself willing that Marta should help. Marta, though, showed opposition. No, she wouldn’t. She had been taken on for the Manor, not the Villa. Frau von Teschow tried to talk her round, Frau von Prackwitz promised her a reward, Fräulein von Kuckhoff admonished her, but Marta remained obstinate. She would not. Very well, then Trudchen! But neither would Trudchen. Trudchen in fact had an excuse: the Villa was too gloomy for her. Too far from the village; and now, when convicts were loose.…

“I really can’t blame her, Eva,” whispered Frau von Teschow. “I don’t know how you look on your responsibility for Violet, but you should let her go with us to Berlin.”

For a moment Frau von Prackwitz thought this a good idea. But: “Violet has gone out with her father.”

“Of course. In that new car of yours. Horst-Heinz phoned to Berlin at once; a car like that costs easily twenty thousand marks. How can you afford it, when you are moaning about the rent?”

“Well, what about one of the maids, Mamma?”

“My dear child, you hear yourself. In these circumstances I really can’t compel them. If something happened to them in the Villa I should have to reproach myself forever.”

“Oh, you mustn’t do that, of course, Mamma. I’ll make shift with Minna or Hartig.”

“I do wish I could have helped you, Evchen. But you really must stand more on your authority with the servants. I hear that you often don’t go into the kitchen for a whole week!” Little pin-pricks, protestations, farewells …

When they went down to the carriage, Geheimrat von Teschow was standing in the hall in his best suit, which clothed the hairy East Prussian even more dreadfully than his customary worsted. “A minute, Eva. Yes, get in, Belinde. I want to say something to Eva.” And taking her arm he led her a few paces away into the park. “There’s one thing I especially want to tell you, Eva. I wouldn’t do so to your husband. He listens to nothing. Perhaps this trip of ours surprises you.…”

“Mamma said it was because of the convicts’ escape.”

“Rubbish! Do you think I should go away because of a few brainless convicts? To a miserable town like Berlin? Ha, ha! That looks like Horst-Heinz von Teschow! No! But have you heard anything about a
Putsch?”
He looked closely at his daughter, who did not reply. “Good, you don’t need to tell me. I can recite it off pat. My son-in-law’s unexpected return, the new car.… So your husband’s joined with them? I hope that he managed at least to get the
money for the car beforehand. Still, he’s not quite as stupid as all that, to get himself into debt for those gentlemen.”

Frau Eva was silent.

“So he has!” crowed Herr von Teschow, delighted. “Well, well. Everyone’s as stupid as he must be. It’s all the same to me. Only I don’t understand
you
. All right. Good. Let’s drop it. Well, here’s a word for you. This
Putsch
will end in smoke. The gentlemen can say what they like, the Reichswehr won’t join in. I’ve been out and about the last few days all the time, keeping my ears open everywhere. A still-born child! There are twenty fools from the village in it, the magistrate Haase, that ninny, right in front. And so the other ninny’s my son-in-law, then?”

“Papa, the people ought to be warned!”

“What’s that? Believe an old man, my child—no one’s pleased if you try to interfere with his stupidities. There may be a bit of fighting—all right! They just can’t stop fighting; they don’t see that Messieurs Clemenceau and Poincaré are laughing fit to split at us killing one another here. So, Evchen, you talk your husband round cunningly and go away, too! If you remain here you will have to take sides one way or the other and be dragged into the mess. Better go away.”

“He wants to join in, though,” she said softly.

“Have I got to tell you, girl, how to get round a man? Say that you have to go to Frankfurt this evening, appendicitis if you like. But go away!”

“Let him join in, Papa.”

The old man looked up. “I’ll be damned!” he cried astonished. “So it’s like that, is it? Well, Evchen, you’ve taken a damned long time about it. I always thought I had a clever daughter.…”

“Oh, Papa.”

“All right, then. Let him join in. For all I care, the car can be lost, too.” He stopped, alarmed by his own generosity. “Well, that’s not altogether necessary. You must try and arrange somehow, Evchen, that the car can’t be taken out tomorrow. Speak to Herr von Studmann. He’s pretty wide awake, certainly.”

“Oh, and Papa! you’re going away—to whom are we to pay the rent tomorrow?”

“Oh, the rent! Have you got it then? Well, leave it till I get back.”

“No, Papa, that won’t do. Herr von Studmann is bringing the money back this afternoon. We can’t risk any devaluation.”

“I’ll be damned!” cried the old gentleman, looking at his daughter nonplussed. “I didn’t think for a moment that you’d have the money by tomorrow. What am I to do now?”

“Tell me whom we shall pay it to, Papa. I shan’t let the money wait beyond October the first.”

“And tomorrow there’s the
Putsch
. Tomorrow the mark may fall and fall. I tell you what, Evchen, pay for the car with the money.”

“Will you take it instead of the rent, then, Papa? You would have to give me that in writing.”

“Eh? What will the car look like tomorrow, perhaps? There’s no family feeling in money matters. I tell you what, I’ll go to some expense about it. Send your young man—Pagel, isn’t it?—send him to me in the Kaiserhof. I’ll pay the fare, third class, of course, and a little for expenses.”

“That won’t do either, Papa. For particular reasons I want Achim to give you the money himself.”

“Damnation!” cried the old gentleman in a rage. “I wish I had gone away without talking to you. Then you could all of you see for yourselves how to get rid of your money. Achim will have to follow me, that’s all.”

“Achim won’t do that, Papa. You know what he has on hand tomorrow.”

“He will have to. Debts come first.”

“That’s what we think, too. But here!”

“Oh, so you’d like me to stay here? No, my child, your father is not such a fool. Elias, come here. Now, Elias, you’ll get from my son-in-law either this evening or tomorrow morning a mass of paper, what they call money nowadays. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Herr Geheimrat.”

“Put it in my old brown leather money bag, go at once to the station and take the next train to me in the Hotel Kaiserhof. Do you know it, Elias?”

“In the Wilhelmplatz, Herr Geheimrat.”

“Correct, Elias. Don’t say a word to anyone. Take a taxi at Friedrichstrasse Station. But don’t let go of the bag for a moment.”

“That I would never do, Herr Geheimrat.”

“Elias, plenty can cut away the bag in a crowd and then you turn up at the Kaiserhof with the handle.…”

“I shall come with the bag.”

“Well, all right, Elias. Listen, put a stone in at the bottom so you can tell by the weight.…”

“Certainly, Herr Geheimrat.”

“Good. Everything in order now, Evchen?”

“Only the receipt for the rent, Papa.”

“This is the limit. Here’s a trusting daughter for you. I can’t give the receipt till I’ve counted if the money is correct.”

“And we can’t give Elias the money without a receipt.”

“You hear, Elias, she doesn’t trust you. How often have you put a pacifier in her mouth, when she was crying in her pram—and now she doesn’t trust you! Very well, Elias, I’ll scribble a receipt for you now. And you must write in the exact sum you get, milliards and millions, exactly, Elias!”

“For certain, Herr Geheimrat.”

“And then the time, to the minute. Notice, for example, if it’s round about twelve, when the dollar changes. Wait a moment. Does your old watch go properly?”

With exactitude the watches were compared, and Elias was given the receipt. From the landau Frau von Teschow had been crying for the last five minutes: “We shan’t get the train, Horst-Heinz! Eva, how can you delay your father like that?”

The Geheimrat shook his daughter’s hand, hesitated a second, then kissed her on the cheek.

Frau von Prackwitz walked back to the farm, to the Villa.… Everyone was fleeing from Neulohe as though it were accursed.

IV

Rittmeister von Prackwitz had that sense of gain which suddenly emerges in those who know nothing of business. When his brother-in-law in Birnbaum admired greatly the Horch car, although thinking it very expensive, it had occurred to him that he might achieve in fact what he had falsely boasted of to his wife. That is, have the car paid for by the rebel gentlemen at Ostade. With a superior air he had assured his brother-in-law that, in the case of those who really knew their way about, cars didn’t cost as much as was supposed. Indeed, almost nothing—in fact, absolutely nothing. And by hints, winks and confidential disclosures he ended by creating in his brother-in-law’s mind a connection between the new car and the coming
Putsch
. Egon had naturally already heard of that. Everyone seemed to have known about it for a long time; the Rittmeister, if anything, last of all. Even though his brother-in-law did not appear to think the
Putsch
very hopeful, as a true son of his father young Teschow considered that no undertaking could be totally bad which had brought to light such a motor car.

Driving home in high spirits, with Vi no less cheerful beside him, the Rittmeister was already firmly convinced that the Reichswehr was under an obligation to pay for his car. What did that little Major mean by ordering him to appear with one? His life was at the service of his country day and night, but with his fortune he had to be more prudent. The croakings of disaster
coming from Eva and his brother-in-law had not been altogether in vain; the Rittmeister resolved to drive to Ostade tomorrow, before the
Putsch
, and sound the comrades in the Reichswehr about squeezing a small installment out of them. Punctually on October the second the first payment for the car would be demanded, and he hadn’t the slightest notion where he was to get the money. But it was superfluous to worry about that. He would see to it in Ostade tomorrow.

He turned and inquired of his daughter, humming happily to herself, what she thought of making a trip there. Violet, naturally, was enthusiastic, embracing and kissing him with such warmth that the Rittmeister almost became suspicious. But it was the alcohol, of course, the delightful drive and the long monotonous weeks, now at an end, when she had been confined to her room. Nevertheless he had, for one moment, got on to the right scent. It was not the father but the sweetheart who was kissed. What did she care for the car or the trip? Ostade meant the Lieutenant. It was impossible to motor to Ostade and not see him. But the thought of her mother gave her some anxiety and she asked cautiously: “And Mamma?”

Her father was suitably annoyed. “Military enterprises are not for your Mamma. It would be as well not to trouble her with them. The best thing would be to do our job properly and surprise her later with its success.”

“But perhaps Mamma would like to go as well.” Violet was very anxious. She certainly didn’t want her mother present at her reunion with the Lieutenant. “Perhaps otherwise she won’t allow me to go.”

“If I allow you, yes, Violet!” It sounded very much the master of the house. In his heart, however, the Rittmeister was not quite so certain of his right to decide about his daughter. He didn’t understand much about young girls; the way in which Violet had just kissed him was really alarming. But Eva, no doubt, understood little more. That confinement to her room about absolutely nothing at all had been a ridiculous blunder, though fortunately Violet did not bear grudges. All the same—to make amends—Eva might well have been a little nicer to her recently. Yes, Violet had honestly earned this excursion to Ostade.