After blowing some mighty clouds, he continued, “With this wedding, my unhappiness began again. Because soon after I suffered losses - tremendous losses. The stock exchange! The stock exchange! What should I start? I was a beggar and ashamed to go out on the street. My son, who now had to take care of himself, entered a wool shop, although he had just completed his law degree, and I - well, I went to my daughter's in Hungary. They received me there very decently - very, I have to say. But it was not long before things took a wrong turn. I have always been an active man and can nowhere so idly watch. So I wanted to help my son-in-law with the administration of the estate; because I had all kinds of insights into agriculture in Poland. My daughter immediately put in the middle. 'Tell me,' then the children said to me, 'Why do not you talk to the Aladar' - his name is Aron - not in it, dear father; You are a Schlemihl. ' That hurt me - from my own flesh and blood. But she was right! I wasa Schlemihl. So I kept quiet and did not care about anything anymore. But what should I have all day beaten in the barren castle on the Hungarian Pussta? Sometimes I went to a nearby town, where the country gentlemen from the area used to gather in a coffee house. There was, especially on market days, played heavily. I was not without means, because my son already earned and sent me from time to time what he could spare - and so I stopped. But the misfortune pursued me once - I lost - until I finally had a gambling guilt on me. Not too high, but I could not pay them and, though reluctantly, had to turn to Sarah for my embarrassment. She had received a considerable dowry from me; but I knew that she had always been stingy very stingy. What do you need to play for, father? This time I want to give you the money, but you can not play anymore; You are a poor man now. ' That was the second. But she was right: mewas a poor man. So touched no more card. But that was not all. It came to light that I was too picky in eating and drinking, and one day when I happened to cough a little it was said, 'You smoke too much, father. Why are you smoking so much? It will hurt you. ' I understood the hint - and it broke the thread in two. Because whoever takes my cigar from me, takes my life from me. I did not reply, although my heart was about to burst; but the next day I traveled and left Sarah alone with her Aladar. Because children do not have them.”
He had been upset by this story, and when he fell silent, he breathed heavily. The beloved cigar had gone out, but he made no attempt to light it again, and stared straight ahead. “You could almost say,” he went on after a while in a toneless voice, “that's how she punishes God. For even my daughter is a true Jewess: she is offended, that she remained unfruitful.”
I wanted to encourage him and said: “For that you experience, it seems, the greater joy in her son.”
He looked up concerned. “My son? O yes! Certainly! My son is a noble person - from whom I can have what I want. But “he threw himself in the chest” he also owes me thanks. I did not spare anything in his education and even kept him a tutor. As I said, he is a lawyer and, like many others, would have been in government services - could have made a career. Last year he wanted to be elected to the Reichsrat at any price. But he preferred to stay completely a merchant. And as such, he is unique. His combinations, his undertakings go great. He is already a millionaire.”
“I congratulate. And you live with him in Vienna?”
“Naturally! Naturally! That means, I lived with him. But there again the daughter-in-law was the stumbling block. They understand: the double jealousy of the wife and mother. The woman knows what pieces my son holds up to me - and then the grandchildren! Oh, if you knew my grandchildren! “He continued, his eyes flashing. “A boy and a girl. True angels! Especially the little one, the Jenny - seven years old. Lovely, I tell you, lovely! And they love their old grandfather idolatrous! There was always envy and quarrels in the house - like that that I finally chose to live alone. But very close, very close; I can at any moment- “He abruptly broke off, as if he lacked his breath, and, with his thoughts sinking, shifted uneasily in his seat.
I did not reply, and so there was a long silence. He seemed completely absorbed in his communicative mood and barely paid any attention to me. His eyes had been dimmed and glazed, his cheeks sunken, his features limp-he suddenly looked very old.
Now he got up abruptly and said, “I'm going to bed. Do you live here too? “And without waiting for my answer or good night, he had gone away.
I sat thoughtfully. I had undoubtedly touched the Old Man in a very sensitive spot, and with some meditation I could easily figure out how that was related. In spite of his deformities and weaknesses, he now inspired me to participate; because I felt that he was an unhappy man. When Herr Matzenauer appeared and asked me with some irony, while he was clearing the table, how I had talked to Herr Hirsch, I gave no answer. Soon after in my room, I heard my neighbor already snoring. But not as horrible as it was then. Or was it just me?
III.
The next day, when I returned home from my usual morning walk, Herr Hirsch stood at the bottom of the gate. He again looked quite fresh and cheerful, and had sitting on his right ear a novelty-sparkling top hat; in his hand he held a small travel bag. He hardly seemed to recognize me and returned my greeting almost like a stranger's.
“Well, how did you sleep?” I asked in dismay.
“Excellent!” He replied condescendingly. “And now I'm going to M... It's a bit frosty today; but that does not matter. Do you know the place?”
I said no.
“A very stately market town, where every day stately officials come together. They have built a kind of casino, and it's very funny. I've been there more often this summer and do not realize that I have not visited this company long ago, instead of getting bored like a pug here. Are you coming with me? The trains are very comfortable; we'll be back by ten in the evening.”
I declined with thanks.
“Goodbye, then!” He put his finger to the edge of the hat and made his way to the station, which, outside the village, could be reached by a short walk.
So today the man behaved, who poured out his whole heart to me yesterday! But his decision to go to M... could only be agreeable to me. Because despite the participation that I began to cherish for him, I had with a certain anxiety a renewed invitation to billiards and other sociable demands.
When he returned at night, I sat in my room and read.
“I've been talking to you - famos!” He shouted to someone, probably Mr. Matzenauer, in the hall so loud that I could hear it upstairs. “These are very different people than the local ones. Tomorrow I will go back!”
In fact, Mr. Hirsch was not visible the next day, not even the next - and on the third he even stayed overnight.
“Herr Hirsch is completely unfaithful to you,” I said to our landlord at breakfast.
“In the name of God!” He answered angrily. It did not seem right to him that the discerning guest carried his money elsewhere. “But do you know what he does in M ...? He plays - and quite high. Because there is a real gang together. The steward and the so-called Forstmeister of a baronial estate, both as in debt as the owner himself, and a tattered Winkelschreiber, who once had been in the area bailiff, the three pluck the old bird, what the stuff. Yesterday he had to borrow a hundred guilders from me, and in the heat of the battle he certainly missed the train. If he only comes home by noon. There is a telegram above for him - probably from his son.”
Really Mr. Hirsch arrived at twelve o'clock. “A telegram !? A telegram !? he yelled as he rumbled up the stairs to his room. “Where is the telegram?” Then, after a pause: “My son is coming! My son! Now it's up to you, Mr. Matzenoër! Make your hotel honor! The other room, as I ordered, has been heated in the last few days? And then a car! A car on six! Sadly my son is coming alone - not with family, as I hoped - but he can not walk. Not on foot! And tell your wife to get together. The food must be exquisite. A dinner! A dinner! My son will have an appetite; because I know that he never takes anything while driving.”
Now, when he was alone, he ran back and forth in his adjoining room, now in
the room reserved for his son. I thought he might, excited as he was, come over to let me know about the great event. But it did not happen; he had apparently already completely forgotten me.
But now I was a little curious about Herr Hirsch junior, and since my meal time coincided with the time of my journey, I could assume that I would be able to see him in the dining-room.
I had just finished my meal when the car started up and immediately afterwards father and son entered; the latter a distinguished, but by no means ambitious phenomenon. Smaller and much more delicate than his father, he did not show any resemblance to this. He had a decidedly Jewish, sharp-cut profile; his high and broad forehead seemed more expressive and significant as a result of an early baldness; the eyes looked a little tired through a fine steel goggles. He silently sat down at the table that Mr. Matzenauer had covered with great care and on which four candles burned in a silver-plated girandole.
“Look at the dining room,” cried Herr Hirsch senior pathetically. “Not elegant, but comfortable. Just let me have a glass of beer right now; I know you like to drink it. It's also excellent - actually the only good thing you can have here. - But you could have brought Richard with you!”
“I have already told you, my dear father,” replied the other in a subdued voice, “that both children suffered from severe colds. So they had to try to get them home as soon as possible.”
“Well, well - but I could have seen her on the train.”
“Then you would have had to use the slow mail train - and that is really uncomfortable for women and children. The express train stops here only during the bathing season.”
“It is true, it is true - - Well, yes, I will press the dear angels tomorrow in Vienna to the heart!”
The son did not reply. He seemed thoughtful and tasted distracted from the beers that you brought him. But I no longer wanted to witness this family conversation, which the old man in his usual uninhibitedness led in the loudest voice, stood up and took me away.
It was moonlight outside. I finished my cigar and went up and down for a while in the desolate spot of the place; then I retired to my room.
At the end of an hour, the other two also came up the stairs and stepped straight into the room from the outside, which was ready for the arrival. There began a conversation, which became more and more lively, so that the sound of voices came over more and more to me. Suddenly I heard the old man exclaim:
“To Venice?! What am I supposed to do in Venice? “He had entered his room and was walking hard.
His son, who evidently had no idea that there was anyone else living up here, had followed him and now said soothingly: “But dear father, you have often expressed your desire to see Venice.”
“Yes, with you! I want to see it with you - I wanted to travel with you. But alone! What should I old man alone in Venice? I can not speak a word of Italian.”
“That's not necessary. In this family, you will feel at home. You will take care of yourself in every way - and in this way you will gradually become acquainted with the peculiar life of the city quite comfortably.”
“I do not want to get to know it! What do I care about the life of Venice? I have enough of my own. And I certainly do not want to be scrounging!”
“They are not scroungers. The man has a very handsome post at a bank there.”
“By whom did he receive him? Through you! Through you! I see, under supervision I should stand. One should monitor every step of my life!”
“You're just imagining that.”
“I do not imagine it! Nothing! You are conspiring behind my back! You banish me! Oh, I know, I know! Already this summer I should not be staying with you in Hietzing - the villa would be big enough - and so it happened that the doctor ordered me a cold water cure and a longer stay in the mountains. I am missing nothing! I am very healthy!”
“Thank God it is you, dear father. The more you can enjoy in Venice.”
“But if I do not want to and do not like! And if I want to, how could I - far from you! Bernhard! “He went on imploringly,” dear Bernhard, do not break me! I know, the proposal does not come from your heart, the woman wants me away!”
“You are wrong. The position that I am currently aiming for, the connections that I have to maintain as a result - in short, conditions make it absolutely necessary that you do not spend this winter in Vienna.”
“I will not be there either - I will not be there for anybody! I want to rent in some suburb - no eye should see me! Only every eight days let me come for a quarter of an hour to see you - and embrace the grandchildren!”
“How many times have you said that! Such unworthy and unnatural arrangements would not be necessary if you were to accept only a little reason. But that's it. If you can not be in the house all day, if you are not invited to any diner, to any society, then you feel deeply offended, make us the heaviest reproaches, the most unpleasant scenes. And then - so it hurts me to have to tell you lately -”
He fell silent; because I was very emphatic now geräuspert. The involuntary role of interlocutor I played had already embarrassed me. They immediately retired to the adjoining room and closed the connecting door.
It was quiet now. But not for long. The performance continued three rooms away from me. However, I no longer understood what was being said; but the voice of the old man came to my ear from time to time: soon plaintive, now threatening, now pleading. Finally a dull cry - then came complete silence.
Soon after, Herr Hirsch slipped into his room and went to bed. But the usual snoring did not happen. I heard him sigh, moan softly - and, I thought, cry softly - until I fell asleep.
* *
*
The next morning the arrived had already left again. His father had accompanied him to the train and came back in the car now. He went into the dining room, where I had just had breakfast, and looked very pale and aggrieved. When he caught sight of me, he made an effort to encourage himself, shaking his hat on the right ear with artificial glee. “Aha, you here? Good Morning! Good Morning! Did you see my son? He's gone again, because he has to be in Vienna this evening. And you know where I amgo for a change? To Venice! What do you say! To Venice! It has long been my wish - and my son has made it possible for me to spend the winter there. I will live with a very fine family and miss nothing that the wonderful city offers. I'm looking forward to the gondola rides. Too bad I'm not younger - because the Venetians should be unique! “He tried a frivolous Laughing, but suddenly stopped; you could see that he was close to crying.
Short Stories From Austria- Ferdinand Von Saar Page 9
