“MY BELOVED JEW!”
From the office of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ Leo had of course gone
directly to Grinzing. Lotte, who, together with her parents, was
already aware of the results of the Parliamentary session, was waiting
for her lover at an open window on the ground floor. And when the
automobile drove up and Leo saw her, the passage through the hall
seemed too long for him, he swung himself through the window, and an
instant later the two young people were in each other’s arms, laughing
and weeping at once. In spite of his athletic skill, however, Leo had
broken a window-pane when he made his short-cut into the house; and as
this caused an audible crash, the Hofrat and his wife, alarmed, hurried
in from the neighboring living-room, only to stop in amazement at the
sight of their daughter being covered with kisses by a strange bearded
man. Until the Hofrat began to cough so energetically that Lotte heard
him and, flushing deeply, extricated herself from her lover’s arms to
present him to her parents:
“Papa--Mama--this is my fiancé, Henry Dufresne!”
“Leo Strakosch by rights,” he added as he threw himself in the arms of
the Hofrat and of his future mother-in-law.
After the joy and confusion of the surprise had abated a little, Herr
Spineder did what a Hofrat should do in such a case. He added: “Now,
children, tell me everything just as it happened.”
And Frau Spineder did what any good housewife would have done in her
place. She cried, declared that she was so excited she couldn’t see
straight, and hurried into the kitchen to prepare a supper to fit the
occasion.
In the meanwhile the Hofrat, Lotte and Leo conversed in the bathroom,
where Leo cut off his beard with a pair of scissors before he shaved
and told his story simultaneously. And it was fortunate he did so, for
just as he finished shaving and again was a handsome, smooth-faced
young man, something quite unexpected happened.
There drove up an automobile containing Herr Habietnik, a Socialist
Deputy, and a converted Municipal Councillor, who informed Leo that
he absolutely had to go to the City Hall with them in order to appear
before the crowds gathered there, and to endure an address by the Mayor.
It was useless to resist--Leo was forced to go along; but Lotte, who
assumed the responsibility of bringing him back in time for the evening
meal, went with him.
They rode on undisturbed until they reached the Schottentor, where
their course was obstructed. For here the crowd was so dense that the
car could not go on. Whereupon the Municipal Councillor leaned out, and
with excellent intentions, though not very tactfully, shouted to the
people:
“Hey, let’s get through! Herr Leo Strakosch, the first Jew to come back
to Vienna, has to go to the City Hall!”
These words called forth a thunderous shout of joy. The car was not
permitted to pass, but had to wait there with Lotte; Leo, however, now
found himself on the shoulders of two sturdy men, and was borne to the
City Hall amid the exultant cheers and yells of the masses.
The beautiful building was illuminated again, looked once more like a
flaming torch; the men who bore Leo on their shoulders had difficulty
in making their way there. And as the trumpets blared the Mayor of
Vienna, Herr Karl Maria Laberl, stepped out on the balcony, stretched
out his arms in a gesture of benediction, and pronounced an impassioned
speech that began with the words:
“My beloved Jew!”
_THE END_
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.