Part 4 (1/2)
Doubtless, he meant ”emphatic,” because a few moments later another pretentious word was incorrectly applied.
”But Sanitatsrat Ehrlich after all has the largest practice in the congregation; and people would look on it as bigamy if anyone were to say anything against him.”
I was only slightly acquainted with my colleague, and I did not know that doubt of his powers would be regarded as blasphemy--probably what Jonas Goldstucker meant to say. The humor of the situation at last began to dawn upon me, and I awaited the further utterances of my remarkable guest in amused curiosity.
”And his house, Herr Kreisphysikus, his house! Really, very fine. The Frau Sanitatstratin knows how to do the honors and to keep her distance.”
What he meant by this was not exactly clear to me; but I learned that the youngest daughter of my colleague Ehrlich was a ravis.h.i.+ng maiden, as Herr Jonas Goldstucker a.s.sured me.
”Very highly educated, speaks every language, plays the piano as well as Leubuscher (I didn't know of the performer), and only Chopin, Rubinstein, Offenbach, Brahm.”
”Brahms, Herr Goldstucker, Brahms.”
”Why, yes, I said Brahm, Herr Kreisphysikus. And what she doesn't know, besides! And quite a housekeeper, too; she learned cooking. No, not a soul can find a thing to say against Miss Edith--Edith, a pretty name, Herr Kreisphysikus, Edith.”
He was silent for a moment. I was on the point of telling him that all this had very little interest for me, and that he should come to the real object of his visit; but he continued to impress me as a man of the better cla.s.ses, with fairly decent manners, calling for a certain amount of consideration. So I maintained my att.i.tude of expectancy, and listened to his digressions and discourses on this theme and that. In the course of his remarks he exclaimed:
”It's really a shame that you don't visit at Sanitatsrat Ehrlich's, though I can imagine you haven't very much time. And now you must be having a good deal of annoyance with that affair in Raudnitz. A terrible misfortune, terrible. That Herr Schlochauer must have had a fearful temper; because it isn't so easy to throw a man out of your place and kill him outright. It must be very trying to his wife; she is an educated woman, daughter of the teacher Weiss, in Beuthen. She never thought she would marry a thoroughly uneducated saloon-keeper. But he got along very well, and you never heard any talk about her not living happily with him. She always had what she needed, and much more. She could help her own family and give her two daughters a good education--very different from what would have happened if she'd gotten her painter. What a sad picture they'd have made, she and her picture-maker.”
He laughed complacently at his pun, and I meditated over the ideal Jewish marriage. Then I was made acquainted with the story of Frau Rosalie Schlochauer's youthful love.
”But that he should have gone and taken his life! It's really awful to bring about a misfortune so deliberately. However, a sister-in-law of Frau Schlochauer, a cousin of my wife, married to the book-dealer Grosser, told me that the widow is remarkably calm. Frau Grosser herself is half dead from the excitement, and she can't possibly comprehend how Frau Schlochauer can be so collected. The idea of hanging himself in prison! Absurd! If he had waited, for all we know he might have been set free. At any rate he would not have gotten more than three or four years. In no circ.u.mstances would he have been put into the penitentiary.
Herr Rechtsanwalt Ca.s.sirer told me yesterday that the jury would certainly have agreed on _dolus eventualiter_.”
Of course, what Herr Jonas Goldstucker wanted to say was _dolus eventualis_. But a little thing like that didn't matter to him, and I continued to wonder how he came to know everybody and a.s.sociate with the best families. He was evidently on a most intimate footing with the heads of the community.
”Frau Schlochauer,” he said, after a while, ”will doubtless move away from Raudnitz. Life for her there in these circ.u.mstances is impossible.
And what should she do with two daughters, who are almost grown up and will soon be marriageable? She will certainly go to Berlin. Her brothers live there; one of them is a lawyer, another is a physician, and the third owns a large s.h.i.+rtwaist factory. There she will have someone to cling to.”
I had a mental picture of Frau Schlochauer, quiet in her grief, earnest, thoughtful, as she unfolded to me her plans for the future. And this man knew it all. He had guessed it and now expressed his opinion on events in the life of a stranger.
”In Berlin people don't bother about such stories. There Frau Schlochauer is the sister of the lawyer Weiss and the doctor Weiss; she is the rich Frau Schlochauer with two pretty, well-bred daughters.
That's enough. The girls will make very good matches. They say the property amounts to a great deal, much more than you'd think by looking at Herr Schlochauer. There he was working all day and thinking of nothing but how to serve his customers. He left culture and education to his wife--and now the money, in addition. The sale of the big house and the distillery may bring in as much as four hundred thousand marks.
Yesterday Rothmann, the banker, told me Schlochauer had been well off, almost rich. Some of his money he placed with Rothmann, the rest with the Breslau Diskonto Bank; and Rothmann knows the amount of his deposits. If Frau Schlochauer, when the time comes, will give each daughter one hundred thousands marks--for the present she won't use more than the interest on her money--she will be able to do very well with them. Of course, she won't get the sort of person that looks out for a so-called fine family. People like that ask after every possible thing, and are sure to find out about the detention in prison and the suicide.
There are some who won't suffer the tiniest speck on the family name--but there are enough young people, too, who haul in without questioning and think, 'Let by-gones be by-gones.' Sometimes even physicians and lawyers aren't so particular about 'antecedents.'”
I looked at my watch. The act should have been an indication to him that I was getting impatient, and was displeased with the familiarity of his talk; but he seemed not to comprehend the delicate hint. For he suddenly broke out with:
”Herr Rabbiner Grunbaum in Loslau was a brother of your mother, wasn't he, Herr Kreisphysikus? I knew him very well. I'm from Loslau, too. A fine man, and very good and friendly. He was very much loved in the Khille, and my blessed mother always used to say: 'Fine as silk, fine as silk.' I knew your father, too, Herr Kreisphysikus; once when he was in Loslau, at the funeral of your uncle, I saw him, and I heard the sermon he delivered. Great, really great! So touching! The whole congregation shed tears. Your father must have been a splendid pulpit orator. A pity he was in such a small congregation. He belonged in Breslau or Berlin.
But, G.o.d bless me, good can be accomplished in the smallest of places; and he certainly did do good. Herr Doktor Feilchenstein was in Johannisbad with me this summer, and he couldn't get through telling me about your parents, Herr Kreisphysikus, and what a pious, good old lady your mother is. No wonder, either, if she's a sister of Herr Rabbiner Grunbaum, of Loslau. And Doktor Feilchenstein told me of you, too. You know, I mean your cousin from Frankfort-on-the-Oder. When he heard that I was from Raudnitz, he asked after you, and sent his regards. He refused to believe that I hadn't met you, when you'd been here since April. But, dear me, in summer everybody, of course, is away, and it's no time for visiting. But now, Herr Kreisphysikus, it's October already, and you haven't made any visits yet.”
What gave the man the right to remonstrate with me on this subject? To be sure, he seemed well acquainted with my family affairs--my cousin sent messages by him. I pondered a while; the name ”Jonas Goldstucker”
was not on my visiting list. Curious! All I said was: ”You must leave me to judge of that.”
”But I beg of you, Herr Kreisphysikus, you misunderstand me. I a.s.sure you I did not mean to instruct you in matters of social form. How could you think such a thing? All I meant was, how should families here get to know and appreciate you, if you keep yourself at such a distance? And your cousin, Doctor Feilchenstein, told me what an excellent person you are, how earnest and thorough, and how you had opened up a career for yourself when you were comparatively young. Not out of the thirties and a Physikus already--and how much pleasure you are giving your old mother.”
Since I last saw my cousin he must have developed into a garrulous old woman. What had possessed him to tell an utter stranger so much of my life, to praise me, and speak of my relations with my quiet, reserved little mother? I couldn't believe my ears, and I was about to give expression to my amazement when he continued:
”And how happy your dear mother would be if you would soon present her with a nice daughter-in-law! If the girl is fine and educated, your mother might even live with you, and end her days under your roof. Many young girls, to be sure, are not in favor of such an arrangement; but that depends, and Edith Ehrlich is such a clever person....”