Finally with a yawn the Head Waiter laid the newspaper aside, looked to see that Karl was still present, and wound up the telephone on the table. He said "Hallo" into it a few times, but no one answered. "No one"s answering," he said to the Head Porter. He, who, it seemed to Karl, was following the telephoning with particular interest, said, "It"s already a quarter to six. She"s bound to be awake. Ring louder." At that moment, without further prompting, the reply signal came. "Head Waiter Isbary speaking," said the Head Waiter. "Good morning, Head Cook. I haven"t woken you up, have I. I"m so sorry. Yes, yes, it"s a quarter to six already. Oh, I"m so sorry to give you a start. You ought to disconnect the telephone while you"re asleep. No, no, absolutely, it"s quite unpardonable, especially in view of the trifling matter I"m calling about. Yes, of course I have time, by all means, I"ll hold the line if that"s all right." "She must have run over to the telephone in her nightgown," said the Head Waiter with a smile to the Head Porter, who was crouching over the telephone box with an anxious expression on his face. "I really did wake her up, usually the little girl who does her typing wakes her, and she must have overslept today. It"s a shame I woke her, she"s nervous enough as it is." "Why isn"t she back yet?" "She"s gone to see what"s the matter with the girl," replied the Head Waiter, with the earpiece pressed against his ear, as it was ringing again. "She"ll turn up," he said into the mouthpiece. "You mustn"t be so put out by everything, you need a good holiday. Now, what I wanted to discuss with you. There"s a lift-boy by the name of" he turned inquiringly to Karl, who, having been following closely, said his name "by the name of Karl Rossmann, if I remember rightly, you took him under your wing a bit; I"m sorry to say he"s given you a poor reward for your kindness, he"s gone and left his post without permission, thereby causing me serious even incalculable consequences, and I have just fired him. I hope you won"t take it amiss. What"s that? Fired, yes, fired. But I told you, he left his post. No, I really can"t give in to you over this, my dear Head Cook. It"s a question of my authority, there"s a lot at stake, one rotten apple will spoil the whole barrelful. You need eyes in the back of your head, especially with those lift-boys. No, no, I"m afraid I can"t do you such a favour in this instance, anxious though I am always to be of service to you. And if I did let him stay in spite of everything, simply to keep my spleen functioning, it"s for your sake, yes yours, that he can"t stay. You look out for him in a way he certainly doesn"t deserve, and knowing both him and yourself as I do, I know that could only lead to your being gravely disappointed, which is something I want to spare you at any price. I say so quite openly, though the fellow"s b.u.t.toned his lip and is standing just a few feet away. He will be fired, no, no, Head Cook, dismissed, no no, he will be transferred to no other line of work, he is completely useless. Complaints are being voiced against him all the time. For example, the Head Porter, what"s that, Feodor, is incensed at the boy"s rudeness and impertinence. What, that"s not enough? My dear Head Cook, you"re denying your true nature on account of this boy. No please don"t give me such a hard time over this."
At that moment the porter leaned forward and whispered something into the Head Waiter"s ear. At first the Head Waiter looked at him in amazement, and then spoke into the telephone at such a rate that to begin with Karl was unable to follow him quite, and advanced a couple of paces on tiptoe.
"My dear Head Cook," he was saying, "in all candour I would never have thought you such a poor judge of character. I have just now heard something about your paragon that will completely change your view of him, and I"m sorry to have to be the one who must break it to you. This excellent boy, then, whom you call a model of rect.i.tude, spends every one of his free evenings running off into the city, and never returns till the following morning. Yes, yes, Head Cook, I have it on good authority, yes, quite unimpeachable authority. Now could you tell me perhaps from where he has the money for such pursuits? How he is supposed to remain alert while on duty? And would you perhaps like me to describe to you the kind of things he gets up to in the city? I really can"t get rid of this boy too fast. And I should like you to be warned by his example to be more circ.u.mspect about boys who turn up on your doorstep."
"But sir, Head Waiter," cried Karl, quite relieved by the gross error that had evidently been perpetrated, and that might best lead to an unexpected improvement in his situation, "there seems to be some confusion here. I believe the Head Porter told you that I go out every night. That"s not the case at all, I spend every night in the dormitory, as all the boys will confirm. Whenever I"m not asleep, I"m studying business correspondence, but in any case I never set foot outside the dormitory at night. It"s easily proved. The Head Porter is evidently confusing me with someone else, now I understand too why he thinks I don"t greet him."
"Will you shut up," shouted the Head Porter and waved his fist where others might have contented themselves with wagging a finger "So I"m confusing you with someone else. If that were so, then I couldn"t go on being Head Porter, if I get people mixed up. Listen, Mr Isbary, I can"t go on being Head Porter, can I, if I get people mixed up. In my thirty years of duty I have never once mixed anyone up, as hundreds of head waiters who"ve been here in that time will be happy to confirm, but now, with you, wretched boy, I"ve suddenly started getting confused. With you, and your strikingly smooth features. How could I possibly be confused, you could have slunk off into the city every night while my back was turned, but I"m telling you that your face is that of a no-good scoundrel."
"That"s enough, Feodor!" said the Head Waiter, whose telephone conversation with the Head Cook seemed to have come to an abrupt end. "It"s a very straightforward matter. It"s not primarily a question of his nocturnal amus.e.m.e.nts. Perhaps before he leaves us he"d like to get some elaborate investigation started into his nocturnal habits. That would just suit him down to the ground. He would have all forty lift-boys summoned to give evidence, and of course all of them would have got him mixed up too, so by and by the entire hotel staff would be subpoenaed, the business of the hotel would grind to a halt for the duration, and at the end of it all when he was finally thrown out, he would have had a good laugh at our expense. So let"s not fall for that. He"s already made a monkey of that good woman, the Head Cook, so let that be enough. I won"t hear any more, you are dismissed with immediate effect for dereliction of duty. I"ll give you a slip for the cashier, so that your wages will be paid up to today. And between you and me, when I think of how you"ve behaved, that"s pure generosity on my part, and I only do it out of regard for the Head Cook."
The Head Waiter was about to put his name to the slip, when the telephone rang again. "The lift-boys are playing up today!" he exclaimed after hearing a few words. "That"s outrageous!" he called, a while later. And he turned to the hotel porter and said: "Feodor, will you keep hold of this fellow for a minute, we need to have further words with him." And into the telephone he gave the order. "Come up right away!"
Now at least the Head Porter could get something out of his system that his words hadn"t succeeded in doing. He gripped Karl"s upper arm, but not with a steady grip, which could have been borne, but periodically loosening it and then gradually making it tighter and tighter, which, with his great strength, seemed to have no limit, and made Karl see stars. Nor was he content to hold him, but, as though he had been ordered to stretch him at the same time, he lifted him up in the air from time to time and shook him, and half-inquired of the Head Waiter: "I"m not mistaking him for someone else now, am I, I"m not mistaking him."
Karl was relieved when the head lift-boy, one Bess, a forever panting fat boy, entered and distracted the attention of the Head Porter. Karl was so exhausted that he could barely manage a greeting, when, to his amazement, he saw a ghostly pale Therese slip into the room after the boy, untidily dressed and with loose, piled-up hair. In an instant she was at his side, whispering: "Does the Head Cook know?" "The Head Waiter told her on the telephone," replied Karl. "Then everything"s all right, everything"s all right," she said quickly, with shining eyes. "No," said Karl, "you don"t know what it is they are accusing me of. I"ll have to leave, the Head Cook is persuaded of that as well. Please don"t stay here, go back upstairs, I"ll come and say goodbye to you later." "Rossmann, honestly, what are you saying. You"ll stay here with us as long as you like. The Head Waiter will do anything the Head Cook wants, he"s in love with her, I discovered quite by chance recently. So set your mind at rest." "Please, Therese, leave me now. I can"t speak so well in my defence when you"re here with me. And I must defend myself carefully, because false accusations are being brought against me. But the more I keep my wits about me and defend myself, the more hope I have of being allowed to stay. So, Therese " Unfortunately, in a sudden spasm of pain, he couldn"t stop himself quietly adding: "If only the Head Porter would let go of me! I didn"t know he was my enemy. But he keeps squeezing me and lifting me up." "Why am I saying that!" he asked himself at the same time, "no woman can stand to hear that," and indeed Therese turned round and, undeterred by the waving of his free hand, said to the Head Porter: "Head Porter, sir, will you please let go of Rossmann. You"re hurting him. The Head Cook will be here any minute, and then we"ll see that he"s been unfairly treated. Let him go, how can you take pleasure in tormenting him." And she even reached out for the Head Porter"s hand. "Orders, missy, orders," said the Head Porter, and with his free hand he pulled Therese affectionately to himself, while with the other he squeezed Karl particularly hard, as though not only intending to cause him pain, but as though he had some design on the arm in his possession which was still far from being achieved.
It took Therese a while to twist away from the embrace of the Head Porter, and she was just about to intervene on Karl"s behalf with the Head Waiter, who was listening to some rather elaborate account of Bess"s, when the Head Cook strode into the room. "Thank G.o.d," cried Therese, and for a moment those were the only words that were heard in the room. Then the Head Waiter leapt up and thrust Bess aside: "So you"ve come in person, Madam. Over this trifling business? Following our telephone conversation I guessed it, but I couldn"t quite bring myself to believe it. And all the time the situation of your protege is getting worse and worse. It looks as though I won"t be dismissing him, but will have to have him locked up instead. Hear for yourself!" And he motioned Bess to come forward. "I want to have a few words with Rossmann first," said the Head Cook, taking a seat offered by the Head Waiter. "Karl, please come closer," she said. Karl did so, or rather was dragged there by the Head Porter. "Let go of him," the Head Cook said crossly, "he"s not a murderer." The Head Porter released him, but not before giving him one final squeeze, so hard that tears came to his own eyes from the effort.
"Karl," said the Head Cook, folding her hands calmly in her lap, and looking at him with her head slightly tilted this wasn"t like a cross-examination at all "first of all let me say that I still have complete trust in you. Also the Head Waiter is a just man, I can vouch for that. Both of us would dearly like to keep you here." She glanced across at the Head Waiter, as though begging not to be contradicted. Nor was she "So forget whatever may have been said to you so far. In particular you mustn"t take too hard what the Head Porter may have said to you. He is an excitable man, which is no wonder when you think about his job, but he has a wife and children, and he knows that it"s not necessary to torment a boy who"s all on his own, because the rest of the world will see to that anyway."
It was very quiet in the room. The Head Porter looked to the Head Waiter for some explanation, but he went on looking at the Head Cook, and shook his head. The lift-boy Bess was grinning fatuously behind the Head Waiter"s back. Therese was sobbing quietly with joy and worry, trying hard to keep the others from noticing.
Karl was looking although this might be taken to be a bad sign not at the Head Cook, who was certainly trying to catch his eye, but at the floor in front of him. His arm was throbbing wildly with pain, his sleeve was sticking to it, and he would have liked to take off his jacket and inspect the place. What the Head Cook was saying was of course very well intentioned, but unfortunately it seemed to him that her manner would make it even clearer that he didn"t deserve any such kindness, that he had for the past two months enjoyed quite unmerited benevolence from the Head Cook, and actually the fittest thing for him was to be given into the Head Porter"s hands.
"I say as much," continued the Head Cook, "so that you may be quite candid in your replies, which as I know you, you would probably have been anyway."
"Can I go and get the doctor, the man might bleed to death in the meantime," the lift-boy Bess piped up suddenly, very politely, but also very disruptively.
"Go on," said the Head Waiter to Bess, who scurried off. And then, to the Head Cook: "The thing is this. The Head Porter hasn"t been detaining the boy for the fun of it. A stranger has been found down in the lift-boys" dormitory, heavily intoxicated, and carefully wrapped up in one of the beds. He was of course woken up and an attempt was made to remove him. But then the fellow started to make a great racket, and kept shouting that the dormitory belonged to Karl Rossmann, whose guest he was, who had brought him there and would punish anyone who dared to lay a finger on him. He had to wait for Karl Rossmann now because he had promised him money, and had just gone to get it. Mark this, Head Cook: Promised him money and had just gone to get it. You pay attention too, Rossmann," said the Head Waiter in an aside to Karl, who had just turned to Therese, who was staring spellbound at the Head Waiter, and kept brushing some hair off her brow, or was at least making as if to do so. "But perhaps I can remind you of some further commitments of yours. The man downstairs went on to say that, following your return, the two of you would be going on to pay a night visit to some singer or other, whose name unfortunately no one could make out, as the man would insist on singing it."
At this point the Head Waiter broke off, because the Head Cook, now visibly pale, had risen from her chair, pushing it back a little. "I"ll spare you the rest," said the Head Waiter. "No, no, please," said the Head Cook, taking his hand, "go on, I want to hear everything, that"s what I"m here for." The Head Porter, who stepped forward, and, in indication of the fact that he had seen it all coming, beat his breast loudly, was simultaneously rebuked and pacified by the Head Waiter"s words: "Yes, Feodor, you were absolutely right!"
"There"s not much more to report," said the Head Waiter. "The way the lads are, they first laughed at the man, then they got into an argument with him, and, as there are always some good boxers among them, they just punched him out, and I didn"t dare ask how many places he"s bleeding from, because the lads are tremendous boxers, and they would make short work of a drunk."
"Well," said the Head Cook, holding the back of the chair, and looking at the place where she had been sitting. "Well, won"t you say something please, Rossmann!" she said. Therese had left her original place and run across to the Head Cook, and, something Karl had never seen her do before, linked arms with her. The Head Waiter was standing just behind the Head Cook, and was slowly smoothing down a modest little lace collar of hers that had turned up slightly. The Head Porter, standing next to Karl said: "Well get on with it," but only to mask a jab in the back he gave him at the same time.
"It is true", said Karl, sounding more uncertain than he meant to as a result of the jab, "that I brought the man into the dormitory."
"That"s all we want to know," said the porter in the name of everyone there. The Head Cook turned silently to the Head Waiter and then to Therese.
"I had no other option," Karl went on. "The man used to be my companion, he came here after we hadn"t seen each other for two months, to visit me, but he was so drunk he was unable to leave unaided."
Standing beside the Head Cook, the Head Waiter said softly under his breath: "He means to say he visited him, and then got so drunk he couldn"t leave." The Head Cook whispered something back over her shoulder to the Head Waiter, who, with a smile on his face that obviously had nothing to do with the present business, seemed to be making some demurral. Therese Karl was looking now only to her had seen enough, and pressed her face in complete helplessness against the Head Cook. The only person who was completely satisfied with Karl"s explanation was the Head Porter, who repeated several times: "Quite right, you have to help your drinking buddy," and sought to impress this explanation on each of those present by looks and gestures.
"So it"s my fault," said Karl, and paused, as though waiting for a kind word from his judges, that might encourage him to further defence, but none came, "but I"m only to blame for bringing the man, Robinson is his name, he"s Irish, into the dormitory. Everything else he said because he was drunk, and it isn"t true."
"So you didn"t promise him any money?" asked the Head Waiter.
"Yes, I did," said Karl, and he was sorry he"d forgotten to mention that, and out of thoughtlessness or vagueness he had stated his innocence in too decisive terms. "I did promise him money, because he asked me for some. But I wasn"t going to get him any, I was only going to give him whatever tips I"d earned in the night." And, as proof, he pulled the money out of his pocket and pointed to a few small coins in the palm of his hand.
"That"s a tangled web you"re weaving," said the Head Waiter. "In order to believe anything you say, one would have to forget whatever else you had said before. First of all you took the fellow I don"t believe he"s called Robinson, no Irishman in that country"s history has ever been called Robinson first of all, you only took him to the dormitory, which is enough in itself to have you out on your ear but without promising him money, then another question catches you out, and you say you did promise him money. But this isn"t a question and answer session, we"re here to let you justify yourself. Now first you didn"t want to get the money, but give him your tips, but then it appears that you still have them on your person, so you obviously had need of other money, for which your long absence argues too. For me there"d be nothing out of the ordinary if you"d wanted to get him some money out of your box, but the vehemence with which you deny that is quite extraordinary. As is the way you kept seeking to deny that you made the man drunk here in the hotel, of which there isn"t the slightest doubt, because you yourself conceded that he arrived on his own, but couldn"t leave on his own, and he himself was shouting in the dormitory that he was your guest. So two things remain at issue, which, if you want to simplify matters, you can answer yourself, but which can also be determined without any a.s.sistance from you: first, how did you gain access to the storerooms, and second, how did you come by money to give away?"
"It"s impossible to mount a defence of oneself without a certain amount of good will," said Karl to himself, and didn"t reply to the Head Waiter, however much Therese might suffer as a result. He knew that whatever he said would look quite different in retrospect from the way he had meant it to sound, and that whether it was good or bad depended solely on the way it was judged.
"He"s not answering," said the Head Cook.
"It"s the most sensible thing he can do," said the Head Waiter.
"He"ll think of something," said the Head Porter, and with his lately violent hand, gently stroked his beard.
"Stop it," said the Head Cook to Therese, who had started sobbing beside her. "You can see he"s not answering, so how can I do anything for him. Remember I"m the one who"s been proved wrong by the Head Waiter. Tell me, Therese, is there anything, do you think, that I haven"t tried on his behalf?" How was Therese to know that, and what did it help, openly asking such a question of the little girl and thereby surely losing face in front of the two men?
"Madam," said Karl, making one last effort, but for the sole purpose of saving Therese from having to make some reply, "I don"t think I have disgraced you in any way, and on closer inspection I don"t think anyone would claim that I had."
"Anyone," said the Head Porter, and pointed at the Head Waiter, "that"s a dig at you, Mr Isbary."
"Well now, Head Cook," said the latter, "it"s half past six, time to move on. I think you"d better leave me the last word in this affair on which we have expended too much patience already."
Little Giacomo had come in and wanted to go over to Karl, but was frightened off by the general silence, so he stood back and waited.
Since Karl"s last words, the Head Cook had not taken her eyes off him, and there was nothing to suggest that she had heard the Head Waiter"s words. She levelled her eyes at him, they were large and blue, if a little dimmed by age and so much work. To see her standing there, feebly rocking the chair in front of her, one might have expected her to go on to say: "Well, Karl, the thing isn"t quite clear to me yet; on reflection, and as you quite rightly said, it calls for closer investigation. So let"s set that in motion now, whether we all agree to it or not, because that"s what justice demands."
Instead of which, after a short silence which no one dared to break only the clock supplied confirmation of the Head Waiter"s words by striking the half hour, and at the same time, as everyone knew, all the other clocks in the whole hotel also struck, an audible and an imagined chime, like the twofold twitching of a single great impatience, the Head Cook said: "No, Karl, no, no! Don"t let"s get involved in all that. Just causes have a certain distinctive aspect, and yours, I must confess, doesn"t. I say so and I am bound to say so as I came here most predisposed in your favour. You see, even Therese is silent." (But she wasn"t silent at all, she was crying.) Taken by a sudden impulse, the Head Cook stopped and said: "Karl, will you come here a minute," and when he had gone to her straight away the Head Waiter and Head Porter conferred animatedly behind his back she put her left arm round him, and followed quite helplessly by Therese, went with him to the other end of the room, and walked to and fro for a while with both of them, and said: "It is possible, Karl, and this is what you have put your trust in, otherwise I couldn"t understand you at all, that an investigation may show you to be right in one or two details. And why not? Perhaps you did greet the Head Porter. I even believe you did, I have my own opinion of the Head Porter, you see, I"m even now being quite open with you. But these vindications are no use to you really. The Head Waiter, whose judgement I have learned to respect in the course of many years, and who is the most reliable man I know anywhere, has clearly found you culpable, and that seems to me irrefutably the case. Perhaps you merely acted rashly, but then again, perhaps I was deceived in you. And yet," she said, virtually contradicting herself, and glancing across at the two men, "I can"t help thinking you"re still a good boy at heart."
"Head Cook! Head Cook! Come along now," called the Head Waiter, who had caught her glance.
"We"re just finishing," said the Head Cook, and addressed Karl with greater urgency now: "Listen, Karl, as I see it, I"m glad the Head Waiter isn"t going to launch an investigation, because if he did, I"d have to try and stop him for your sake. No one must learn how and with what you entertained the man, who, incidentally, can"t have been one of your former companions as you claim, because you had such a falling out with them when you broke up, so you would hardly have been looking after him now. So it can only be some acquaintance you foolishly made in some bar in the city. How could you keep all these things from me, Karl? If you found the dormitory so unbearable, and for that innocent reason you took to your nightlife, you had only to tell me, you know I wanted to get you a room of your own, and only desisted at your request. It now appears that you preferred the general dormitory because you could feel less constrained there. And you kept your money in my chest, and brought me your tips every week, where in G.o.d"s name did you get the money to pay for your amus.e.m.e.nts, and where were you going to get the money for your friend from? All these are of course things I daren"t even suggest to the Head Waiter, for the moment, because then an investigation might become unavoidable. So you must leave the hotel, and as quickly as possible. Go straight to the Pension Brenner you"ve been there several times with Therese they"ll take you in for free on my recommendation" and taking a golden crayon from her blouse, the Head Cook scribbled a few lines on a visiting card, but carried on speaking at the same time "I"ll have your suitcase sent on after you, Therese, go to the lift-boys" cloakroom and pack his suitcase" (but Therese still refused to move, having endured so much misery, she now wanted to witness this sudden turn for the better in Karl"s affairs, thanks to the kindness of the Head Cook).
Someone opened the door a crack, without showing himself, and then shut it again. It must have been for Giacomo, because he now stepped forward and said: "Rossmann, I have something for you." "In a minute," said the Head Cook, and pushed the visiting card into Karl"s pocket as he stood and listened with bowed head, "I"ll keep your money for the moment, you know it"s safe with me. Stay in today and think about everything, and tomorrow I"ve no time today, I"ve spent far too long here already I"ll visit you at the Brenner, and we"ll see what we can do for you then. I"m not abandoning you, I"m telling you right now. You"re not to worry about the future, just about the recent past." Thereupon she patted him on the back and went over to the Head Waiter, Karl raised his head and watched the large stately woman walking calmly and easily away from him.
"Aren"t you even a bit pleased", said Therese, who had stayed behind with him, "that everything has turned out so well?" "Oh yes," said Karl, and smiled at her, but he didn"t know why he should be pleased to be called a thief and be sent packing. But joy gleamed in Therese"s eyes, it was as though she was completely indifferent as to whether Karl had done wrong or not, whether he had been correctly judged or not, so long as he was allowed to get away somehow, with honour or in disgrace. And this was Therese, who was so scrupulous in her own affairs, turning over and inspecting some just slightly unclear sentence of the Head Cook"s in her head for weeks. He asked her deliberately: "Will you pack my suitcase and send it on promptly?" He had to shake his head in disbelief at the way Therese grasped the question and how her conviction that there were items in the suitcase that needed to be kept concealed from view meant that she didn"t even look at Karl or shake hands, but merely whispered: "Of course, Karl, right away, I"ll pack it right now." And she was gone.
Now there was no more stopping Giacomo, and excited after his long wait he called out: "Rossmann, the man is rolling about in the corridor downstairs and refuses to be taken away. They wanted to have him taken to hospital but he wouldn"t go and says you"d never let him be sent to a hospital. He wants to be driven home in a car, and says you"ll pay for the car. Will you?"
"There"s a trusting fellow," said the Head Waiter. Karl shrugged his shoulders and handed his money over to Giacomo: "It"s all I"ve got," he said.
"And I"m to ask you if you want to go in the car with him," Giacomo asked, jingling the money.
"He won"t be going in the car with him," said the Head Cook.
"Now Rossmann," said the Head Waiter quickly, without even waiting for Giacomo to leave the room, "you"re dismissed with immediate effect."
The Head Porter nodded several times, as though these were his words, which the Head Waiter was merely repeating.
"I am not able to state the grounds for your dismissal, because if I did I would have to have you locked up."
The Head Porter looked across at the Head Cook with notable severity, because it had not escaped him that she was the cause of this unduly mild treatment.
"Go to Bess now, get changed, give Bess your livery, and leave the premises at once, and I mean at once."
The Head Cook closed her eyes, she did it to soothe Karl. As he bowed in farewell, he just caught a glimpse of the Head Waiter"s hand discreetly taking the Head Cook"s hand and playing with it. The Head Porter, with heavy tread, accompanied Karl to the door, which he wouldn"t let him close, but kept open in order to be able to call after him: "In a quarter of a minute I want to see you going past my office at the main gate, just remember that."
Karl hurried as much as he could, to avoid a scene at the main entrance, but everything took much longer than he meant it to. To begin with, Bess couldn"t be met with right away, and as it was now breakfast time there were people everywhere, and then it turned out that another boy had borrowed Karl"s old trousers, and Karl was forced to look through most of the clothes stands next to the beds before he could find them, so that five minutes must have elapsed before Karl reached the main entrance. In front of him was a lady, accompanied by four gentlemen. They all went up to a large automobile which was waiting for them, and whose rear doors were being held open by a lackey who had his left arm extended stiffly behind him, which looked terribly impressive. But Karl"s hope to slip out un.o.bserved with this posh group was a vain one. The Head Porter had him by the hand and pulled him out between two of the gentlemen, begging their pardon as he did. "That was never a quarter of a minute," he said and looked askance at Karl, like a man inspecting a faulty watch. "Come in here will you," he said, and led him into the large porter"s lodge, which Karl had been longing to see for ages, but which he now entered, propelled by the porter, full only of suspicion. He was already in the doorway when he turned round and tried to push the porter aside and get away. "Oh no you don"t, this is the way in," said the Head Porter, spinning Karl round again. "But I"ve already been dismissed," said Karl, implying that no one in the hotel could order him about any longer. "As long as I"ve got you in my grip, you"re not dismissed," said the porter, which was indeed the case.
Karl finally could think of no reason why he should defend himself against the porter. What worse thing could befall him? Besides, the walls of the porter"s lodge were entirely made up of enormous gla.s.s panels, through which you could see the crowds of people flowing into one another in the lobby, just as clearly as if one were in their midst. Yes, there seemed to be no corner in the whole porter"s lodge where one could be concealed from the eyes of those outside. And in however much of a hurry they all seemed to be as they made their way in or out, with outstretched arms, lowered heads and darting eyes, and luggage held aloft, yet hardly one of them failed to throw a glance into the porter"s lodge, for behind its gla.s.s panels there were always announcements and messages hanging that were of importance to the guests as well as the hotel staff. In addition, there was direct commerce between the porter"s lodge and the lobby, because of the two sliding windows which were manned by two under-porters, who were uninterruptedly engaged in giving out information on all kinds of subjects. These men were really overburdened, and Karl could have sworn that the Head Porter, as he knew him, must have got around doing this job in his past career. These two information dispensers had you really couldn"t get a sense of it from outside at least ten inquiring faces at the windows in front of them. These ten questioners, who were continually changing, spoke in a babel of different languages, as though each one of them had been sent from a different country. There were always some asking their questions at the same time, while some others were talking amongst themselves. For the most part, they wanted to collect something from the porter"s lodge or leave something there, and so you could always see hands waving impatiently out of the ma.s.s of people. Now someone wanted some newspaper, which was abruptly unfolded from above and briefly covered everyone"s faces. And the two under-porters had to stand up to all this. Mere speaking would not have been enough, they had to babble, and one of them especially, a gloomy man with a beard that surrounded his whole face, gave information without the slightest break. He looked neither at the desk in front of him, where he had various things to do too, nor at the faces of any of his inquisitors, but just in front of him, obviously to save his strength. His beard must have impeded the clarity of his speech, and in the few moments Karl stood beside him, he could understand very little of what he said, although perhaps, for all that it still sounded like English, he might just have been replying in some foreign language. Besides, it was confusing, the way one piece of information followed on the heels of another, and merged with it, so that a questioner was often listening with a tense expression on his face in the belief that he was still hearing something intended for himself, only to realize a while later that he had been taken care of already. You also had to get used to the fact that the under-porter never asked for a question to be repeated, even if it was generally comprehensible and only asked in some slightly unclear way, a barely perceptible shake of the head would indicate that he didn"t intend to reply to the question, and it was up to the questioner to realize his own shortcoming and reformulate his question in some better way. This kept some people at the counter for a very long time. To a.s.sist the under-porters, they each had an errand-boy, who had to run and get whatever the under-porter happened to need from a bookshelf and various files. These were the best-paid, if also the most exhausting, jobs for young people in the hotel, in a certain sense they were even worse off than the under-porters, who merely had to think and speak, whereas these young people had to think and run. If they happened to bring something inappropriate, the under-porter in his haste of course couldn"t take the time to give them a long lecture, he would just sweep. what they had laid in front of him on to the floor. Very interesting was the change-over of under-porters, which took place just after Karl"s entry. Such change-overs must take place fairly frequently during the day at least, because the person probably didn"t exist who could stand behind the counter for more than an hour. At the change-over time a bell sounded, and from two side doors the two under-porters whose turn it now was, emerged, each followed by his errand-boy. They stood for a while impa.s.sively by the counter to determine the current state of the answering process. When the right moment seemed to them to have come, they tapped on the shoulder of the under-porter they were relieving, who, though he had paid no attention to what had been going on behind his back, straightaway understood, and vacated his place. The whole thing happened so quickly that the people outside were often taken by surprise and almost shrank back from the new face that had so suddenly appeared in front of them. The men who had been relieved stretched, and from two basins that stood ready they poured water over their hot heads, the relieved errand-boys though were not yet permitted to stretch, they were still busy a while longer with picking up items that had been thrown on the floor during their hours of duty, and putting them back in their rightful places.
Karl had taken in all this in a few moments of the raptest attention, and he felt a slight headache as he quietly followed the Head Porter onward. Evidently the Head Porter had noticed how greatly impressed Karl was by this style of information-giving, and he suddenly tugged at Karl"s hand, and said: "You see, that"s how people work here." Karl himself hadn"t actually been idle in the hotel, but he had had no notion of work such as this, and almost forgetting that the Head Porter was his sworn enemy, he looked up at him, and nodded in silent recognition. But that in turn struck the Head Porter as an overestimation of the under-porters and an implicit slight against his own person, because, as though he had been kidding Karl, he called out, without worrying about being overheard: "Of course this is the most stupid work in the whole hotel; if you listen for an hour, you know pretty well all the questions that are asked, and the rest you don"t need to answer. If you hadn"t been so cheeky and impertinent, if you hadn"t lied and tricked and boozed and stolen, I might have put you at one of these windows, because it"s only numbskulls I can use there." Karl quite failed to hear the abuse directed at himself, such was his indignation at the way the honest and difficult work of the under-porters, far from being recognized, was mocked, and mocked at that by a man who if he had dared to sit at one of those counters would surely have been forced to quit within a matter of minutes, to the derision of all the questioners. "Let me go," said Karl, his curiosity about the porter"s lodge now more than satisfied, "I don"t want anything more to do with you." "That"s not going to get you out of here," said the Head Porter, and pinned Karl"s arms so that he couldn"t even move them, and carried him bodily up to the other end of the porter"s lodge. Could the people outside not see this violence by the Head Porter? And if they saw it, how on earth did they interpret it, because no one seemed at all exercised by it, no one so much as knocked on the window to let the Head Porter know he was under observation, and couldn"t treat Karl as he pleased.
Soon, though, Karl had no more hope of getting help from the lobby, for the Head Porter pulled a string and instantly half the porter"s lodge was screened right to the very top by black curtains. There were people in this part of the porter"s lodge too, but they were all hard at work, and had no eyes or ears for anything that wasn"t to do with their work. Besides, they were completely dependent upon the Head Porter, and, sooner than helping Karl, they would rather have helped to conceal whatever it was the Head Porter might have it in mind to do to him. For instance there were six under-porters manning six telephones. The principle, you could see at a glance, was that one would jot down conversations, while from his notes, the man next to him would pa.s.s on the orders by telephone. They were the very latest type of telephone that needed no telephone cubicles, for the ringing was no louder than a cheep, you could whisper into the mouthpiece, and, thanks to special electrical amplification, your words would boom out at the other end. And so one could barely hear the three speakers on their telephones, and might have supposed they were murmuringly observing some process in the telephone mouthpiece, while the other three drooped their heads over the paper it was their job to cover, as though stunned by the deafening volume in their ears that was inaudible to everyone else in the room. Once again there was a boy standing by each of the three speakers; these three boys did nothing but crane their necks to listen to their masters, and then hurriedly, as though stung, look up telephone numbers in enormous yellow books the rustling of the volumes of paper easily drowning out all the noise of the telephones.
Karl simply couldn"t resist observing it all closely, even though the Head Porter had sat down, holding him in front of him in a kind of embrace. "It is my duty," said the Head Porter, and shook Karl, as though to get him to face him, "in the name of hotel management, at least to some extent, to catch up on what the Head Waiter, for whatever reason, has failed to do. We always stand in for each other here. Otherwise such a great enterprise would be impossible. You may say that I"m not your immediate superior, but that only makes it more creditable of me to interest myself in this otherwise neglected business. Besides, as Head Porter, I am in a certain sense put in charge of everything, because I am in charge of all the hotel entrances, this main entrance here, the three central and ten side entrances, not to mention the innumerable little doors and other exits. Of course all the service teams concerned have a duty of unconditional obedience to me. In return for these signal honours, I am charged by the management not to let anyone out who is in the slightest degree suspicious to me. You, I would say, are strongly suspicious." And delighted with that he lifted his hands off Karl and let them fall again, which made a smacking noise and hurt. "It is possible", he went on, enjoying himself hugely, "that you might have managed to slip out un.o.bserved at one of the other gates, because it"s not worth my while issuing special instructions just for you. But seeing as you"re here now, I"d like to make the most of you. In fact I never had any doubt in my mind that you would keep our appointment at the main entrance, because it is a rule that a cheeky and insubordinate party will only forsake his vices where it will do him the most damage. You will be able to observe this in yourself many times yet."
"Don"t imagine," said Karl, and breathed in the strangely musty smell that emanated from the Head Porter, and only noticed for the first time now that he had been standing so close to him for so long, "don"t imagine", he said, "that I am completely in your power, I can scream." "And I can gag you," said the Head Porter, as calmly and quietly as he would gag him, if it ever came to that. "And do you really think, if anyone should come in on your account, that he would back your version against the Head Porter"s. You must concede your hopes are nonsensical. You know, when you were still in uniform, you had something vaguely impressive about you, but in this suit, which has Europe written all over it." And he tugged at various bits of the suit, which indeed, although it had been almost new five months ago, was now worn, creased, and above all stained, which was largely to be attributed to the ruthlessness of the lift-boys, who every day, under instruction to keep the floor of the dormitory clean and free of dust, undertook no proper cleaning out of laziness, but merely squirted a kind of oil over the floor, which did terrible damage to all the clothes in the clothes stands. You could keep your clothes wherever you liked, there would always be someone who happened not to have his own to hand, but was easily able to find those that someone else had hidden, and borrow them for himself. And he might be one of the very ones who had to clean the room that day, and so the clothes wouldn"t just get the odd squirt of oil on them, but a veritable dunking from top to bottom. Only Renell had managed to keep his exquisite wardrobe in some secret place where hardly anyone had managed to find them, especially as it appeared people didn"t borrow out of malice or greed, but just helped themselves from haste and negligence. But even Renell"s jacket had a perfectly round reddish oil stain in the middle of the back, by which an expert in the town might have identified even that elegant young man as a lift-boy.
Remembering all this, Karl told himself he had suffered enough as a lift-boy, and it had still all been in vain, because his lift-boy work hadn"t, as he"d hoped, turned out to be a prelude to some higher position, rather he had been pushed out of it into something still lower, and was even very close to going to prison. On top of that he was in the grip of the Head Porter, who was probably thinking how he might further humiliate Karl. And completely forgetting that the Head Porter was certainly not a man who was open to persuasion, Karl shouted, hitting his brow with his momentarily relinquished hand as he did: "And if I really did forget to greet you, how can a grown man get so vengeful over an omitted greeting!"
"I"m not vengeful," said the Head Porter. "I just want to look through your pockets. Of course I won"t find anything in them, because I am sure you will have taken the precaution of letting your friend remove a little every day. But searched you must be." And he reached into Karl"s jacket pocket with such force that the st.i.tching split at the side. "Well, nothing there," he said, as he picked over the contents of the pocket in his hand, a calendar advertising the hotel, a sheet of paper with an exercise in business correspondence on it, a few jacket and trouser b.u.t.tons, the Head Cook"s visiting card, a nail-file that a guest had tossed him while packing his suitcase, an old pocket mirror that Renell had given him in return for the dozen or so times he"d stood in for him, and a few more bits and pieces besides. "Nothing there," repeated the Head Porter, and threw everything under the seat, as though it were self-evident that any property of Karl"s that hadn"t been stolen belonged there. "I"ve had enough," said Karl to himself his face must be scarlet and when the Head Porter, incautious in his greed, started digging around in Karl"s other pocket, Karl quickly slid out of his sleeves, leaped aside, knocking an under-porter quite hard against his telephone, ran rather more slowly through the humid air than he"d meant to, to the door, but was happily outside before the Head Porter had even been able to pick himself up in his heavy coat. The organization of the hotel security couldn"t have been that exemplary after all, he heard bells ringing from several quarters, but G.o.d knows what they were ringing for, hotel employees were swarming around the entrance in such numbers that one could almost imagine they were un.o.btrusively making it impa.s.sable, because he really couldn"t see much purpose in all their toing and froing anyway, Karl quickly got outside, but was then forced to walk along the pavement in front of the hotel, he couldn"t get to the public street, as an unbroken line of cars was driving haltingly past the entrance. These cars, trying to get as quickly as possible to their pa.s.sengers waiting for them, had practically driven into one another, each one was being pushed along by the one behind. Pedestrians who were in a particular hurry to get to the street did occasionally walk through an individual car here and there, as though it were some public thoroughfare, and they were quite indifferent as to whether the car contained just chauffeur and servants or the most distinguished people. Such behaviour seemed overdone to Karl, and you probably had to be familiar with the conditions to try it, it would be very easy to try it with a car whose occupants might object, throw him out and cause a scandal, and there was nothing he had to fear more than that as a runaway, suspicious hotel employee in shirtsleeves. After all, this line of cars couldn"t go on for ever, and for as long as he stuck close to the hotel it was actually the least obtrusive place for him. Finally Karl came to a place where the line of cars, though not actually broken, did loosen a little as it converged with the street. He was just about to slip into the traffic, which contained far more suspicious-looking persons than himself, running around without a care in the world, when he heard his name being called. He turned round and saw two lift-boys he knew well, at a low doorway that looked like the entrance to a tomb, with immense effort pulling out a litter, on which, as Karl could now determine, lay Robinson, indeed, head, face and arms all swathed in bandages. It was horrid to see him rubbing at his eyes bringing his arms up to his face in order to wipe away with the bandage the tears he was shedding out of pain or some other suffering, or even possibly joy at seeing Karl once more. "Rossmann," he called out reproachfully, "why have you kept me waiting so long. I"ve spent the last hour trying to keep them from shipping me off before you arrived. These fellows" and he nodded in the direction of one of the lift-boys, as though guaranteed immunity by his bandages from further blows "are devils incarnate. Oh Rossmann, how my visit to you has cost me." "What happened to you?" asked Karl, and stepped up to the litter which the lift boys laughingly put down for a rest. "How can you ask," sighed Robinson, "just look at me. Consider! In all probability I"ve been crippled for life. I"m in excruciating pain from here to here" and he indicated first his head then his toes "I only wish you could have seen my nose bleed. My waistcoat is completely ruined, I had to leave it behind, my trousers are ripped, I"m in my underpants" and he raised the blanket a little so that Karl could take a look. "What"s going to become of me? I"ll have to spend several months recuperating minimum, and I can tell you this right now, I have no one but you who can look after me, Delamarche is far too impatient. Rossmann, little Rossmann!" And Robinson stretched out his hand to Karl, who had stepped back a little, to win him over by stroking him. "Why did I have to go and visit you!" he said repeatedly, lest Karl forget his part in his misfortune. Karl recognized at once that Robinson"s lamentations stemmed not from his wounds, but from the incredible hangover he must be suffering, as one who had barely dropped off, heavily drunk, had been awoken straight afterwards, to his amazement beaten to a pulp, and was now completely disorientated in the waking world. The trivial nature of his injuries was already evident from his unsightly bandages of old rags which the lift-boys had completely swaddled him in, evidently for a lark. The two lift-boys at either end of the litter burst out giggling from time to time too. But this wasn"t the place to bring Robinson round, pedestrians rushed past without paying any attention to the little group around the litter, people regularly hurdled athletically over Robinson"s body, the driver paid with Karl"s money was calling: "Come on, come on," the lift-boys, at the end of their strength, hoisted up the litter once more, Robinson took Karl"s hand and said wheedlingly, "Oh come on, come on," and wasn"t the darkness of an automobile the best place for Karl in his present predicament? And so he sat down next to Robinson, who rested his head against him, the lift-boys staying behind, heartily shook his hand through the window, as their former colleague, and the car turned sharply into the road, it seemed as though an accident were bound to happen, but then the all-encompa.s.sing traffic calmly accommodated the arrowy thrust of their car into itself.
The automobile came to a stop in what appeared to be a remote suburban street, because all around there was silence, children squatted on the edge of the pavement playing, a man with a lot of old clothes over his shoulders called up watchfully to the windows of the houses, Karl felt uncomfortably tired as he climbed out of the car on to the asphalt, on which the morning sun was shining warmly and brightly. "Do you really live here?" he called into the car. Robinson, having slept peacefully for the whole drive, grunted unclearly in the affirmative, and seemed to be waiting for Karl to lift him out of the car. "Well, I"ve done all I need to do here. Goodbye," said Karl, and he set off down the street which sloped gently downhill. "Karl, what are you doing?" cried Robinson, and in his alarm practically stood straight up in the car, although his knees were still a little trembly. "I have to go," said Karl, witnessing the sudden improvement in Robinson"s condition. "In your shirtsleeves?" he asked. "I should think I"ll earn enough for a jacket," replied Karl, nodded confidently at Robinson, waved goodbye and would really have left him, if the driver hadn"t called: "One moment please, sir." Unpleasantly, it turned out that the driver was claiming some further payment, because the wait in front of the hotel hadn"t been included. "That"s right," called Robinson from the car, in corroboration, "you kept me waiting for such a long time. You"ll have to give him a bit extra." "Quite so," said the driver. "If I had anything," said Karl, reaching into his trouser pockets, even though he knew it was pointless. "I"m going to have to stick by you," said the driver and stood up, feet apart, "I can"t expect anything from the invalid in the back." A young fellow with a chewed-up nose came over from the doorway and stopped to listen a few feet away. A policeman who was just doing his rounds in the street, took in the shirtsleeved man with lowered gaze, and stopped. Robinson, also spotting the policeman, was foolish enough to call to him out of the other window: "It"s nothing, nothing at all," as though it were possible to shoo away a policeman like a fly. The children, observing the policeman and seeing him stop, transferred their attention to Karl and the driver, and trotted over to have a look. In the gate opposite stood an old woman, watching stiffly.
Then a voice from above called out: "Rossmann." It was Delamarche, calling down from the top-floor balcony. He was hard to make out against the blueish-white sky, but was evidently wearing a dressing-gown, and surveying the street with opera gla.s.ses. Next to him was a red parasol under which a woman appeared to be seated. "Hallo," he cried at the top of his voice, in order to make himself heard, "have you brought Robinson?" "Yes," replied Karl, powerfully seconded by another, far louder "Yes," from Robinson in the car. "Hallo," came the reply, "I"m coming down." Robinson leaned out of the car. "What a man," he said, and his praise for Delamarche was directed at Karl, at the driver, at the policeman, and at anyone else who cared to hear it. Up on the balcony, which everyone was still looking up at in distrait fashion, even though Delamarche had already left it, there was indeed a strongly built woman in a red dress under the parasol, who now got up, took the opera gla.s.ses off the parapet, and looked through them at the people below, who gradually turned their attention away. In expectation of Delamarche, Karl looked at the gateway and beyond it the yard, which was being crossed by an almost uninterrupted stream of commercial porters, each of whom was carrying on his shoulder a small, but evidently very heavy chest. The chauffeur had gone back to his car, and, making the most of the delay was polishing his lamps with a rag. Robinson palped his limbs, seemingly astonished at the small degree of discomfort he felt, in spite of paying very close attention, and gingerly bending down began to undo one of the thick bandages round his leg. The policeman held his black truncheon horizontally in front of him, and with the great patience required of policemen, whether on normal duty or undercover, waited quietly. The fellow with the chewed-up nose sat down on a bollard by the gate and stretched his legs. The children gradually tiptoed up to Karl, because even though he was paying them no attention, he seemed to them to be the most important of everyone on account of his blue shirtsleeves.
One gained a sense of the enormous height of the building from the length of time it took for Delamarche to appear. And when he did come, it was at a great pace, with his dressing-gown barely done up. "So there you are!" he cried, at once pleased and severe. At each of his long strides, there was a flash of colourful underclothing. Karl didn"t quite understand how Delamarche could walk around here in the city, in the enormous tenement block and on the public street, as comfortably clad as though he were in his private villa. Like Robinson, Delamarche too was greatly changed. His dark, clean-shaven, scrupulously clean face with its raw musculature looked proud and respectable. The harsh glint of his rather narrowed eyes was surprising. His violet dressing-gown was old and stained and rather too big for him, but out of that ugly garment sprouted a mighty dark cravat of heavy silk. "Well?" he inquired, looking round. The policeman advanced a little, and leaned against the car bonnet. Karl gave a little explanation. "Robinson is a little decrepit, but if he makes an effort he"ll be able to walk up the stairs all right; the driver here wants a supplement to the fare which I"ve already paid him. And now I"m going. Good day." "You"re not going anywhere," said Delamarche. "That"s what I told him too," piped up Robinson from the car. "Oh yes I am going," said Karl, and began to walk off. But Delamarche was after him already, and held him back forcibly. "And I say you"re staying," he cried. "Leave me alone," said Karl, and got ready to fight his way out with his fists if need be, however little prospect of success that might have against a man of Delamarche"s stamp. But there stood the policeman, there was the driver, here and there groups of workers pa.s.sed through the otherwise peaceful street, would they permit him to be treated unfairly by Delamarche? He wouldn"t like to have been shut up in a room with him, but what about here? Delamarche was now calmly paying off the driver, who, with many bows, pocketed the undeservedly large sum, and out of grat.i.tude went over to Robinson, obviously to advise him on how best to get out of the car. Karl felt un.o.bserved, perhaps Delamarche would be more disposed to accept a quiet departure, if a quarrel could be avoided that would of course be better, and so Karl simply walked out on to the road in order to get away as quickly as he could. The children flocked over to Delamarche to draw his attention to Karl"s flight, but he didn"t even have to intervene in person, because the policeman extended his truncheon and said: "Stop!"
"What"s your name," he asked, tucking his truncheon under his arm, and slowly pulling out a notepad. Karl looked closely at him for the first time, he was a powerful man, but his hair was almost completely white. "Karl Rossmann," he said. "Rossmann," repeated the policeman, no doubt purely because he was a calm and conscientious officer, but Karl, for whom this was actually his first dealing with American officialdom, saw in that mere repet.i.tion the voicing of a certain suspicion. And his affair was probably looking bad, because even Robinson, who had so many worries of his own, leaned out of the car and gesticulated mutely and animatedly to Delamarche, to help Karl. But Delamarche refused with a hasty shake of the head and looked on impa.s.sively, his hands in his over-large pockets. The fellow on the bollard explained the whole affair from the beginning to a woman who had just come out of the gate. The children stood in a semicircle behind Karl and looked silently up at the policeman.
"Let me see your papers," said the policeman. It was probably just a matter of form, because if you don"t have a jacket, you won"t have much in the way of papers either. Karl therefore made no reply, in order to answer the next question the more fully, and thereby perhaps gloss over the lack of doc.u.ments. But the next question was: "So you have no papers?" and Karl could only reply: "Not on me." "That"s not good," said the policeman, and looked at everyone thoughtfully, and tapped the cover of his notebook with two fingers. "Have you some kind of work?" he finally asked. "I was a lift-boy," said Karl. "You were a lift-boy, but you aren"t one any more, and so what do you live off now?" "I"m going to look for a new job now." "So you were sacked from your job?" "Yes, an hour ago." "Suddenly?" "Yes," said Karl, and raised his hand apologetically. He couldn"t tell the whole story here, and even if it had been possible, it still seemed hopeless to try and avert a threatened injustice by telling of one already suffered. And if he hadn"t received justice from the kindly Head Cook and the perspicacious Head Waiter, he certainly couldn"t expect it from this group of people here on the street.
"And you were dismissed without your jacket?" asked the policeman. "Well, yes," said Karl, apparently even in America the authorities liked to ask about things they could perfectly well see with their own eyes. (How his father in obtaining his pa.s.sport had been annoyed by the pointless questioning of the authorities.) Karl was sorely tempted to run away somewhere and not have to endure any more questions. But then the policeman asked the one question that Karl had most been afraid of, and in fearful antic.i.p.ation of which he had probably behaved more thoughtlessly than he would have done otherwise: "In what hotel were you employed?" He lowered his head and didn"t answer, he really didn"t want to answer that question. He must at all costs avoid being taken back to the Hotel Occidental under police escort, facing further inquiries to which his friends and enemies would be summoned to appear, the Head Cook completely abandoning her already somewhat qualified good opinion of Karl, seeing him, whom she had supposed to be at the Pension Brenner, picked up by a policeman, in shirtsleeves, returned without her visiting card; the Head Waiter might perhaps merely nod sagely, the Head Porter though speak of the hand of G.o.d that had finally nabbed the scoundrel.
"He was working at the Hotel Occidental," said Delamarche, repositioning himself next to the policeman. "No," cried Karl and stamped his foot, "that"s not true." Delamarche looked at him with a sardonic twist of his lips, as though he could if he liked make other, far more damaging revelations about him. Karl"s unexpected agitation caused a great commotion among the children, who all moved across to Delamarche, in order to have a better view of Karl. Robinson had stuck his head right out of the window by now, and, in his nervousness, was behaving very quietly; the occasional blink of an eye, nothing more. The fellow in the gateway clapped his hands with glee, the woman next to him jabbed him with her elbow to quieten him down. The porters were just having their breakfast-break, and they all trooped out with large mugs of black coffee, which they were stirring with breadsticks. A few sat down on the edge of the pavement, they all drank their coffee very noisily.
"You appear to know this boy," the policeman asked Delamarche. "Better than I should like to," he replied. "I once showed him a lot of kindness, but he paid me back very ill, which won"t surprise you, even after the short interview you"ve had with him." "Yes," said the policeman, "he seems to be a surly fellow all right." "That he is," said Delamarche, "but that"s not even the worst thing about him." "Oh?" said the policeman. "Yes," said Delamarche, who was now in full flight and with his hands in his pockets, swinging his dressing-gown this way and that, "he"s a nasty piece of work. Me and my friend over in the car took him in when he was in a very bad way, at the time he had no idea about things in America, he had just arrived here from Europe, where they had no use for him either, so we took him along with us, let him live with us, explained everything to him, tried to get him a job, for all the indications to the contrary thought we"d be able to turn him into a useful member of society, and then one night he simply disappeared, he just went, and that under circ.u.mstances I"d sooner not have to go into. Is that right or not?" Delamarche asked finally, tweaking at Karl"s sleeve. "Step back please, children," called the policeman, because they had pressed forward so much that Delamarche almost tri