On the evening following Kreisler’s arrival Volker had an engagement. The morning after that Kreisler turned up at half-past twelve. Volker was painting Fr?ulein Bodenaar. She was very smartly dressed, in a tight German way. He displayed a disinclination to make Kreisler and his sitter acquainted. He was a little confused. They arranged to meet at dinner-time. He was going to lunch with Fr?ulein Bodenaar.
Kreisler the night before had spent a good deal of money in the German paradise beyond the river. Volker understood by the particular insistent9 blankness of Kreisler’s eye that money was needed. He was familiar with this look. Kreisler owed him fifteen hundred marks. He had at first made an effort to pay back Volker money borrowed, when[77] his allowance arrived. But in Rome, and earlier for a short time in Münich, his friend’s money was not of so much value as it was at present. Ernst waived10 repayment11 in an eager, sentimental12 way. The debt grew. Kreisler had felt keenly the financial void caused by Volker’s going off to Paris. He had not formulated13 to himself the real reason of his following Volker. Nor had he taken the trouble to repudiate14 it. He was now in the position of a man separated for some months from his wife. He was in a luxurious15 hurry to see once more the colour of Volker’s gold.
Kreisler was very touchy16 about money, like many borrowers. He sponged with discrimination. He had not for some time required to sponge at all, as Volker amply met his needs. So he had got rather out of practice. He found this reopening of his account with little friend Ernst a most delicate business. It was worse than tackling a stranger. He realized there might be a modification17 of Volker’s readiness to lend. He therefore determined18 to ask for a sum in advance of actual needs, and by boldness at once re-establish continuity.
After dinner he said:
“You remember Ricci? Where I got my paints the first part of the time. I had some trouble with that devil before I left. He came round and made a great scandal on the staircase. He shouted ‘Bandit! Ha! ha! Sporca la tua Madonna!’—how do you say it?—‘Sporco Tedesco.’ Then he called the neighbours to witness. He kept repeating he was ‘not afraid of me.’ I took him by the ear and kicked him out!” he ended with florid truculence19.
Volker laughed obsequiously20 but with discomfort21. Kreisler solicited22 his sympathetic mirth with a masterful eye. He laughed himself, unnecessarily heartily23. A scene of violence in which a small man was hustled24, which Volker would have to applaud, was a clever prelude25. Then Otto began to be nice.
“I am sorry for the little devil! I shall have the money soon. I shall send it him. He shall not suffer. Antonio, too. I don’t owe much. I had to[78] settle most before I left. Himmel! My landlord!” He choked mirthfully over his coffee a little, almost upsetting it, then mincingly26 adjusted the cup to his moustached lips.
If he had to settle up before he left, he could not have much now, evidently! There was a disagreeable pause.
Volker stirred his coffee. He immediately showed his hand, for he looked up and with transparent27 innocence28 asked:
“By the way, Otto, you remember Blauenstein at Münich??”
“You mean the little Jew from whom everybody used to borrow money?” Kreisler fixed29 him severely30 and significantly with his eye and spoke31 with heavy deliberation.
“Did people borrow money from him? I had forgotten. Yes, that’s the man. He has turned up here; who do you think with? With Irma, the Bohemian girl. They are living together—round the corner there.”
“Hum! Are they? She was a pretty little girl. Do you remember the night Von Gerarde was found stripped and tied to his door-handle? He assured me Irma had done it and had pawned32 his clothes.”
Was Volker thinking that Blauenstein’s famous and admitted function should be resorted to as an alternative for himself by Kreisler?
“Volker, I can speak to you plainly; isn’t that so? You are my friend. What’s more, already we have—” he laughed strongly and easily. “My journey has cost the devil of a lot. I shall be getting my allowance in a week or so. Could you lend me a small sum of money. When my money comes?”
“Of course! But I am hard up. How much—?” These were three jerky efforts.
“Oh, a hundred and fifty or two hundred marks.”
Volker’s jaw33 dropped.
“I am afraid, my dear Kreisler, I can’t—just now—manage that. My journey, too, cost me a lot. I’m[79] very sorry. Let me see. I have my rent next week? I don’t see how I can manage?”
Volker had a clean-shaven, depressed34, and earnest face. He had always been honest and timid.
Kreisler looked sulkily at the tablecloth35 and knocked the ash sharply off his cigarette into his cup.
He said nothing. Volker became nervous.
“Will a hundred marks be of any use?”
“Yes.” Kreisler drew his hand over his chin as though stroking a beard down and then pulled his moustaches up, fixing the waitress with an indifferent eye. “Can you spare that?”
“Well—I can’t really. But if you are in such a position that?”
This is how he lost Volker. He felt that hundred marks, given him as a favour, was the last serious bite he would get. He only gradually realized of how much more worth Volker’s money now was, and what before was an unorganized mass of specie, in which the professional borrower could wallow, was now a sound and suitably conducted business. He met that night the new manager.
He was taken round to the Berne after dinner. He did not realize what awaited him. He found himself in the head-quarters of many national personalities36. Politeness reigned. Kreisler was pleased to find a permanent vat37 of German always on tap. His roots mixed sluggishly38 with Ernst’s in this living lump of the soil of the Fatherland dumped down at the head of the Boulevard Pfeiffer.
The Germans he met here spoke a language and expressed opinions he could not agree with, but with which Volker evidently did. They argued genially39 over glasses of beer and champagne40. He found his ticket at once. He was the vielle barbe of the party.
“Yes, I’ve seen Gauguins. But why go so far as the South Sea Islands unless you are going to make people more beautiful? Why go out of Europe? Why not save the money for the voyage?” he would bluster41.
“More beautiful? What do you understand by[80] the word ‘beautiful,’ my dear sir?” would answer a voice in the service of new movements.
“What do I call beautiful? How would you like your face to be as flat as a pancake, your nostrils42 like a squashed strawberry, one of your eyes cocked up by the side of your ear? Would not you be very unhappy to look like that? Then how can you expect any one but a technique-maniac to care a straw for a picture of that sort—call it Cubist or Fauve or whatever you like? It’s all spoof43. It puts money in somebody’s pocket, no doubt.”
“It’s not a question, unhappily, of how we should like our faces to be. It is how they are. But I do not consider the actual position of my eyes to be any more beautiful than any other position that might have been chosen for them. The almond eye was long held in contempt by the hatchet-eye?”
Kreisler peered up at him and laughed. “You’re a modest fellow. You’re not as ugly as you think! Nach! I like to find?”
“But you haven’t told us, Otto, what you call beautiful.”
“I call this young lady here”—and he turned gallantly44 to a blushing cocotte at his side—“beautiful, very beautiful!” He kissed her amid gesticulation and applause.
“That’s just what I supposed,” his opponent said with appreciation45.
He did not get on well with Soltyk. Louis Soltyk was a young Russian, half Polish, who occasionally sat amongst the Germans at the Berne. Volker saw more of him than anybody. It was he who had superseded46 Kreisler in the position of influence as regards Volker’s purse. Soltyk did not borrow a hundred marks. His system was far more up to date. Ernst had experienced an unpleasant shock in coming into contact with Kreisler’s clumsy and slovenly47, small-scale money habits again! Soltyk physically48 bore, distantly and with polish, a resemblance to Kreisler. His handsome face and elegance49 were very different. Kreisler and he disliked each[81] other for obscure physiological50 reasons: they had perhaps scrapped51 in the dressing52-rooms of creation for some particular fleshly covering, and each secured only fragments of a coveted53 garment. In some ways, then, Soltyk was his efficient and more accomplished54 counterpart, although as empty and unsatisfactory as himself.
“Aber wo ist der deutsche Student?” Soltyk would ask, referring to him usually like that.
“He’s in good company somewhere!” Volker revealed Kreisler as a lady’s man. This satisfied Soltyk’s antipathy55. The Russian kept an eye on Volker’s pocket while Kreisler was about. He had not only recognized in him a mysterious and vexing56 kinship, with his instinct; his sharper’s sense, also, noted57 the signs of the professional borrower, the most contemptible58 and slatternly member of the crook59 family. In an access of sentiment Ernst asked his new friend to try and sell a painting of Kreisler’s. Soltyk dealt in paintings and art objects. But Soltyk took him by the lapel of the coat and in a few words steadied him into cold sense.
“Non! Sois pas bête! Here,” he pulled out a handful of money and chose a dollar-piece. “Here—give him this. You buy a picture—if it’s a picture you want to buy—of Krashunine’s. Kreisler has nothing but Kreisler to offer. C’est peu!”
Ernst introduced Kreisler next to another sort of Paris compatriot. It was a large female contingent60 this time. He took him round to Fr?ulein Lipmann’s on her evening, when these ladies played the piano and met.
Kreisler felt that he was a victim of strategy. He puffed61 and swore outside, complained of their music, the coffee, their way of dressing.
The Lipmann circle could have stood as a model for Tarr’s Bourgeois62-Bohemians, stood for a group.
For chief characteristic this particular Bourgeois-Bohemian set had the inseparability of its members. Should a man, joining them, wish to flirt63 with one[82] particularly, he must flirt with all—flatter all, take all to the theatre, carry the umbrellas and paint-boxes of all. Eventually, should he come to that, it is doubtful if a proposition of marriage could be made otherwise than before the assembled band! And marriage alone could wrench64 the woman chosen away from the clinging bunch.
Kreisler, despite his snorting, went again with Volker. The female charm had done its work. This gregarious65 female personality had shown such frank invitation to Volker that had any separate woman exhibited half as hospitable66 a front he would have been very alarmed. As it was, it had at first just fulfilled certain bourgeois requirements of his lonely German soul. Kreisler came a few weeks running to the Lipmann soirée. Never finding Volker there, he left off going as well. He felt he had been tricked and slighted. The ladies divined what had happened. Fr?ulein Lipmann, the leader, put a spiteful little mark down to each of their names.
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1
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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suave
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| adj.温和的；柔和的；文雅的 | |
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prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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waived
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| v.宣布放弃( waive的过去式和过去分词 )；搁置；推迟；放弃（权利、要求等） | |
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repayment
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| n.偿还，偿还款；报酬 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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14
repudiate
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| v.拒绝，拒付，拒绝履行 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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touchy
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| adj.易怒的；棘手的 | |
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modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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truculence
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| n.凶猛，粗暴 | |
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obsequiously
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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solicited
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| v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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prelude
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| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
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mincingly
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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32
pawned
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| v.典当，抵押( pawn的过去式和过去分词 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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tablecloth
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| n.桌布，台布 | |
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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37
vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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sluggishly
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| adv.懒惰地；缓慢地 | |
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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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bluster
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| v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声 | |
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42
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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43
spoof
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| n.诳骗，愚弄，戏弄 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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46
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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47
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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49
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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51
scrapped
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| 废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架 | |
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52
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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53
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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54
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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55
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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56
vexing
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| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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57
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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59
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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61
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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62
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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63
flirt
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| v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者 | |
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64
wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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65
gregarious
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| adj.群居的，喜好群居的 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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