The words seemed to echo from another world,--lamenting, exhorting, warning.
It was Dr. Rosenfeld who had spoken them. The young man sat there deathly pale, as though frightened by his uncalled-for interference in the family quarrel. The whole evening and even during the last conversation he and Hugo had remained quiet, although their faces plainly expressed their interest.
"My dear Henry, you, too, carry matters too far," said Mr. Friedheim, impatiently. "But as our humor is spoilt, and it is late, I think it is best to break up. The fresh December air will cool us off, and we will go home, only to begin over again, at the next opportunity."
"We expect you on Wednesday for Skat," said Mrs. Freudenthal.
"Aha, the session for the next discussion is arranged," Mr. Friedheim laughed.
"Good-by, then, until Wednesday."
"Good-by."
Hugo and Henry also took their leave to spend an hour at the Cafe Bauer, where they were to meet several friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Benas and Rita, left alone, went to Mrs. Benas"s boudoir.
"It is strange how easily we are carried away when we are among ourselves. Friedheim and Lesser are always ready for a fight. The slightest difference of opinion, and off they go," said Mrs. Benas.
"The curious thing is that at bottom their opinions are not so very different, but argumentation is a racial trait. There"s no doubt, we have too much temperament." Mr. Benas smiled, lighting a cigar, and leaning back comfortably in his arm-chair. "I"m curious to know whether Dr. Weilen is such a wrangler as the rest of the Friedlanders and the Friedheims," he added, trying to tease his wife.
"I, Joshua? I know others who don"t lack the same trait."
"But, f.a.n.n.y dear, how can you compare us? Generations of practice in the subtle dialectics of the Talmud--that tells. It is not by chance that your family is famous in all intellectual pursuits, while the rest of us, who bear on our escutcheon the rabbit skins and bags of wool carried about by our ancestors, cannot get to be more than mere Geheimer Kommerzienrat."
He liked to refer occasionally to his humble descent from simple merchants; especially when he felt his superiority as a quiet, self-contained man of the world, who could afford to laugh at the irritability and sensitiveness of others. That always put him in a good humor; and Mrs. Benas, well aware of this, fell in with his mood.
"Naturally, Joshua! Geheimer Kommerzienrat, that"s nothing! You know you don"t believe that. I think we may well be satisfied with one another.
Friedlander, Friedheim, and Benas! That"s an imposing triple alliance. I think we may be well content."
"And with all that belong to it."
"Even though they quarrel the moment they come together, at the bottom of their hearts they swear by one another and are proud of one another."
"Besides, a bit of argument is entertaining, and brings life into the shindig."
His wife looked at him reproachfully.
"I beg your pardon! I withdraw "shindig.""
"Indeed, you ought to be careful, Joe. One"s language is bound to deteriorate when one indulges in such vulgar expressions."
"But they"re so distinctive and expressive, almost as good as the Jewish intonation."
"Leave them to others."
"Hold on, f.a.n.n.y. Do you see how I have caught you? Who is exclusive? Who are the others? Who are the others? Pity that Hugo is not here."
He was delighted and amused, and laughed at the embarra.s.sment of his wife. She quickly recovered herself, and answered:
"The others are the vulgar ones, the uncultured, the mob, with whom we have nothing in common, and don"t want to have anything in common."
"And the rest say the same of us. Let us have nothing to do with those aliens, those interlopers, those parasites, that ferment, which decomposes the healthy vigorous elements of the Aryan race. That"s the gracious, charitable refrain."
"Here we are again at the Jewish question," said Mrs. Benas, somewhat displeased, "we three, here alone."
"Papa, mamma, and the baby," laughed Mr. Benas.
"It"s really not funny, Joshua," said Mrs. Benas, earnestly and thoughtfully. "It actually seems as if we could never get rid of it, as if it followed us everywhere. Mr. Friedheim is right. It sits at our table, it accompanies us to social gatherings, to the theatre, and to concert halls; it stands next to us wherever we go in the world, meets us on our travels, and forces itself into our dreams and our prayers."
"You exaggerate, Fannsherl. The imagination and the eloquence of the Friedlanders are awakening in you. We know how they think and speak, always in superlatives," he teased good-humoredly, in order to calm her excitement.
"But you see how it is yourself, Joshua. We get here together cozily, in order to chat a bit, to rest ourselves after the strain of entertaining, we have no sinister intentions, in fact, we are ready to reproach our relatives with indiscretion, and before we know it, we are in the thick of it."
"In the soup, _I_ should have said," he added, trying to give the talk a jesting turn.
"Joshua, please, don"t joke. I am in earnest. Isn"t it very sad that all our thoughts should be dominated by this one subject? That we can"t free ourselves from it any more? That we can"t rise superior to it? That it intimidates us, makes us anxious, petty, serious, and embittered?"
"Yes, dearest, since you ask me to be in earnest, I must agree, that conditions are, indeed, very sad, even though great concessions are still made, have to be made, to us merchants who are in the world of commerce and finance. But for how long? Who knows? A festering wound spreads, despite morphine injections, as Freudenthal says. He could tell tales! One of the most talented of architects, full of spirit and taste, with artistic skill and training seldom met with in his profession, especially here in Berlin, and although he has been a royal Government architect since the year "78, he has been so completely pushed aside that he has been forced to put all his energies into land and suburban speculations out there on the Kurfurstendamm, in the Grunewald suburb, and in the elaborate business-houses on the Leipzigerstra.s.se. Naturally this brings him a large income, and that is one more reason why his work becomes a reproach."
Mrs. Benas sighed.
"And Friedheim? His capabilities, his thoroughness, and his valuable achievements ent.i.tle him to a place in the ministry. Instead of that he has actually reached the exalted point of being Justizrat, a t.i.tle of seniority like Sanitatsrat among physicians. What difference does it make that as an attorney he has a practice worth one hundred thousand marks? He is ambitious, has aspirations, like all prominent professional men, and finds himself set aside in the prime of his powers. Lesser, too, told me recently that he is going to resign. He has exhausted the last possibility in his career, he cannot hope for further advancement, so he is going to give up official life, devote himself to his scientific researches, and indulge in travel. As soon as Hedwig is married, he and Betty can get away easily. They can leave the boys behind, they have enough money for that."
"That is and will always remain the only thing that gives us independence, and dignity, too," she said bitterly. "We have the money--and then the world is surprised that we strive so persistently to obtain it, hold on to it with such tenacity, and enlarge our fortunes once we have them."
"n.o.body wonders at that nowadays. Only the envious and spiteful who have no money themselves. But we may as well admit it; what is true of our own small circle is true everywhere. Well-deserving persons are trammelled in their activities. So far and no farther! Wherever we look, we see them chained to the lowest stages. "Not beyond the boundary we have mapped out for you," says the Government. "You want to climb, you are equipped to be brave mountaineers, you lack nothing you need to reach the summit, neither courage, nor endurance, nor strength. Yet remain below, remain below!" The foot-hills reached at the first spurt, mere child"s play for their abilities, are the only heights they are allowed to scale. The way is barred, the natural course of their energies repressed. It is frightful that restrictions other than considerations of capacity should hold back the aspirants; that ostracism should be decreed because of a mere chance adherence to a certain faith."
"Then Hugo and his friends are not so greatly in the wrong as you sometimes declare?" she asked with tense expectancy in her voice.
"No, not in principle, but in their aims. Those are phantoms, fantasies!
A dream which foolish boys dream,--and clever women."
Rita had followed her parents" conversation, partly in absent revery, partly with alert interest. "No, you can"t get rid of it," she said in a soft, reflective voice. "I myself experienced it this evening, when I was speaking with Dr. Weilen. Suddenly we, too, had arrived at the fateful subject."
"Well, that settles it. You, too--and he!"
Her father kissed her tenderly on her forehead, and added jestingly, "Pray, don"t tell Hugo or Henry of this. Good-night, Rita."
"Good-night, papa. Good-night, mamma." She respectfully kissed her parents" hands.
"Sleep well, dear child," her mother said, also kissing her upon her forehead.
On the twenty-third of December a company of young men gathered at the house of Hugo Benas, in his roomy, comfortable study on the second floor. They were in the midst of an exciting debate, when Dr. Henry Rosenfeld entered.