I
When Wolfgang visited his home during the Christmas vacation he
congratulated his father on the latter’s accession to a new dignity;
Albrecht Wahnschaffe had been made a Privy Councillor.
He found the house changed--silent and dull. From a brief conversation
with his father he learned that Christian was causing anxiety and
excitement. He listened avidly, but did not succeed in gathering any
details. Strangers had told him of Christian’s sale of his properties;
but he had no notion of the meaning of this step.
He had but one long talk with his mother. She seemed to him to be
morbid and to treat him with an indifference that wounded him.
Rumours of all kinds reached him. The major-domo informed him that Herr
von Crammon had spent a couple of days at the castle, almost constantly
closeted with its mistress. They had sent an enormously long telegram
to Berlin, offering some one a bribe of forty or fifty thousand marks.
The telegram had not been addressed directly to the person in question,
but to an intermediary. The reply must have been unfavourable, for
on its receipt Herr von Crammon had announced that he himself would
proceed to Berlin.
Wolfgang decided to write to Crammon, but his letter remained
unanswered.
Since, at bottom, he took very little interest in Christian’s doings,
he refrained from any further investigation, and at the beginning of
January returned to Berlin. From the behaviour of his acquaintances it
was evident that a secret in which he was concerned weighed on their
minds. In many eyes there was an indefinite yet watchful curiosity. But
he was not particularly sensitive. His aim was to appear faultless in
the worldly sense and not to alienate any who might affect his career.
He was so wholly identified with the views of his social group that
he trembled at the very thought of being accused of a mistake or an
unconventionality. For this reason his demeanour had an element of the
nervously watchful and restless. He was extremely careful to venture
the expression of no opinion of his own, but always to be sure that
whatever he said represented the opinion of the majority who set the
standards of his little world.
At a social gathering he observed near him several young men engaged in
eager but whispered conversation. He joined them and they became silent
at once. He could not but remark the fact. He drew one of them aside
and put the question to him brusquely. It was a certain Sassheimer, the
son of an industrial magnate of Mainz. He could have made no better
choice, for Sassheimer envied him, and there was an old jealousy
between his family and the house of Wahnschaffe.
“We were talking about your brother,” he said. “What’s the matter with
him? The wildest stories are floating around both at home and here in
Berlin. Is there anything to them? You ought to know.”
Wolfgang grew red. “What could be wrong?” he replied with reserve and
embarrassment. “I know of nothing. Christian and I scarcely communicate
with each other.”
“They say that he’s taken up with a loose woman,” Sassheimer continued,
“a common creature of the streets. You ought to do something about that
report. It isn’t the sort of thing your family can simply ignore.”
“I haven’t heard a syllable about it,” said Wolfgang, and became
redder than ever. “It’s most improbable too. Christian is the most
exclusive person in the world. Who is responsible for such rot?”
“It is repeated everywhere,” Sassheimer said maliciously; “it’s queer
that you’re the only one who has heard nothing. Besides, he is said to
have broken with all his friends. Why don’t you go to him? He is in the
city. Things like that can ordinarily be adjusted in a friendly way
before the scandal spreads too far.”
“I shall inquire at once,” said Wolfgang, and drew himself very erect.
“I’ll probe the matter thoroughly, and if I find the report to be a
slander I shall hold those who spread it strictly accountable.”
“Yes, that would seem the correct thing to do,” Sassheimer answered
coolly.
Wolfgang went home. All his old hatred of his brother flamed up anew.
First Christian had been the radiant one who threw all others in the
shade; now he threatened to bring disgrace and danger into one’s most
intimate circles.
The hatred almost choked him.