The ship that brought Theodore Brandeis to America was the last of
its kind to leave German ports for years. The day after he sailed from
Bremen came the war. Fanny Brandeis was only one of the millions of
Americans who refused to accept the idea of war. She took it as a
personal affront. It was uncivilized, it was old fashioned, it was
inconvenient. Especially inconvenient. She had just come from Europe,
where she had negotiated a million-dollar deal. War would mean that she
could not get the goods ordered. Consequently there could be no war.
Theodore landed the first week in August. Fanny stole two days from the
ravenous bins to meet him in New York. I think she must have been a very
love-hungry woman in the years since her mother's death. She had never
admitted it. But only emotions denied to the point of starvation could
have been so shaken now at the thought of the feast before them. She had
trained herself to think of him as Theodore the selfish, Theodore the
callous, Theodore the voracious. “An unsuccessful genius,” she
told herself. “He'll be impossible. They're bad enough when they're
successful.”
But now her eyes, her thoughts, her longings, her long-pent emotions
were straining toward the boat whose great prow was looming toward her,
a terrifying bulk. The crowd awaiting the ship was enormous. A dramatic
enough scene at any time, the great Hoboken pier this morning was filled
with an unrehearsed mob, anxious, thrilled, hysterical. The morning
papers had carried wireless news that the ship had been chased by a
French gunboat and had escaped only through the timely warning of the
Dresden, a German gunboat. That had added the last fillip to an already
tense situation. Tears were streaming down half the faces upturned
toward the crowded decks. And from every side:
“Do you see her?”
“That's Jessie. There she is! Jessie!”
“Heh! Jim, old boy! Come on down!”
Fanny's eyes were searching the packed rails. “Ted!” she called,
and choked back a sob. “Teddy!” Still she did not see him. She was
searching, womanlike, for a tall, blondish boy, with a sulky mouth, and
humorous eyes, and an unruly lock of hair that would insist on escaping
from the rest and straggling down over his forehead. I think she was
even looking for a boy with a violin in his arms. A boy in knickers.
Women lose all sense of time and proportion at such times. Still she did
not see him. The passengers were filing down the gangplank now; rushing
down as quickly as the careful hands of the crew would allow them, and
hurling themselves into the arms of friends and family crowded below.
Fanny strained her eyes toward that narrow passageway, anxious, hopeful,
fearful, heartsick. For the moment Olga and the baby did not exist for
her. And then she saw him.
She saw him through an unimaginable disguise. She saw him, and knew
him in spite of the fact that the fair-haired, sulky, handsome boy had
vanished, and in his place walked a man. His hair was close-cropped,
German-fashion; his face careworn and older than she had ever thought
possible; his bearing, his features, his whole personality stamped
with an unmistakable distinction. And his clothes were appallingly,
inconceivably German. So she saw him, and he was her brother, and she
was his sister, and she stretched out her arms to him.
“Teddy!” She hugged him close, her face buried in his shoulder. “Teddy,
you--you Spitzbube you!” She laughed at that, a little hysterically.
“Not that I know what a Spitzbube is, but it's the Germanest word I
can think of.” That shaven head. Those trousers. That linen. The awful
boots. The tie! “Oh, Teddy, and you're the Germanest thing I ever saw.”
She kissed him again, rapturously.
He kissed her, too, wordlessly at first. They moved aside a little, out
of the crowd. Then he spoke for the first time.
“God! I'm glad to see you, Fanny.” There was tragedy, not profanation
in his voice. His hand gripped hers. He turned, and now, for the
first time, Fanny saw that at his elbow stood a buxom, peasant woman,
evidently a nurse, and in her arms a child. A child with Molly Brandeis'
mouth, and Ferdinand Brandeis' forehead, and Fanny Brandeis' eyes, and
Theodore Brandeis' roseleaf skin, and over, and above all these,
weaving in and out through the whole, an expression or cast--a vague,
undefinable thing which we call a resemblance--that could only have come
from the woman of the picture, Theodore Brandeis' wife, Olga.
“Why--it's the baby!” cried Fanny, and swung her out of the nurse's
protesting arms. Such a German-looking baby. Such an adorably
German-looking baby. “Du kleine, du!” Fanny kissed the roseleaf cheek.
“Du suszes--” She turned suddenly to Theodore. “Olga--where's Olga?”
“She did not come.”
Fanny tightened her hold of the little squirming bundle in her arms.
“Didn't come?”
Theodore shook his head, dumbly. In his eyes was an agony of pain. And
suddenly all those inexplicable things in his face were made clear to
Fanny. She placed the little Mizzi in the nurse's arms again. “Then
we'll go, dear. They won't be a minute over your trunks, I'm sure. Just
follow me.”
Her arm was linked through Theodore's. Her hand was on his. Her head
was up. Her chin was thrust out, and she never knew how startlingly she
resembled the Molly Brandeis who used to march so bravely down Norris
street on her way to Brandeis' Bazaar. She was facing a situation, and
she recognized it. There was about her an assurance, a composure, a
blithe capability that imparted itself to the three bewildered and
helpless ones in her charge. Theodore felt it, and the strained look
in his face began to lift just a little. The heavy-witted peasant woman
felt it, and trudged along, cheerfully. The baby in her arms seemed to
sense it, and began to converse volubly and unintelligibly with the blue
uniformed customs inspector.
They were out of the great shed in an incredibly short time. Fanny
seemed equal to every situation. She had taken the tube to Hoboken, but
now she found a commodious open car, and drove a shrewd bargain with the
chauffeur. She bundled the three into it. Of the three, perhaps Theodore
seemed the most bewildered and helpless. He clung to his violin and
Fanny.
“I feel like an immigrant,” he said. “Fan, you're a wonder. You don't
know how much you look and act like mother. I've been watching you. It's
startling.”
Fanny laughed and took his hand, and held his hand up to her breast,
and crushed it there. “And you look like an illustration out of the
Fliegende Blaetter. It isn't only your clothes. Your face is German.
As for Mizzi here--” she gathered the child in her arms again--“you've
never explained that name to me. Why, by the way, Mizzi? Of all the
names in the world.”
Theodore smiled a wry little smile. “Mizzi is named after Olga's chum.
You see, in Vienna every other--well, chorus girl I suppose you'd
call them--is named Mizzi. Like all the Gladyses and Flossies here in
America. Well, Olga's special friend Mizzi--”
“I see,” said Fanny quietly. “Well, anything's better than Fanny. Always
did make me think of an old white horse.” And at that the small German
person in her arms screwed her mouth into a fascinating bunch, and then
unscrewed it and, having made these preparations said, “Tante Fanny.
Shecago. Tante Fanny.”
“Why, Mizzi Brandeis, you darling! Teddy, did you hear that! She said
`Tante Fanny' and `Chicago' just as plainly!” “Did I hear it? Have I
heard anything else for weeks?”
The plump person on the opposite seat, who had been shaking her head
violently all this time here threatened to burst if not encouraged to
speak. Fanny nodded to her. Whereupon the flood broke.
“Wunderbar, nicht war! Ich kuss' die handt, gnadiges Fraulein.” She
actually did it, to Fanny's consternation. “Ich hab' ihr das gelernt,
Gnadige. Selbst. Ist es nicht ganz entzuckend! Tante Fanny. Auch
Shecago.”
Fanny nodded a number of times, first up and down, signifying assent,
then sideways, signifying unbounded wonder and admiration. She made a
gigantic effort to summon her forgotten German.
“Was ist Ihre Name?” she managed to ask.
“Otti.”
“Oh, my!” exclaimed Fanny, weakly. “Mizzi and Otti. It sounds like the
first act of the `Merry Widow.'” She turned to Theodore. “I wish you'd
sit back, and relax, and if you must clutch that violin case, do it
more comfortably. I don't want you to tell me a thing, now. New York is
ghastly in August. We'll get a train out of here to-morrow. My apartment
in Chicago is cool, and high, and quiet, and the lake is in the front
yard, practically. To-night, perhaps, we'll talk about--things. And, oh,
Teddy, how glad I am to see you--to have you--to--” she put out a hand
and patted his thin cheek--“to touch you.”
And at that the man became a boy again. His face worked a moment,
painfully and then his head came down in her lap that held the baby,
and so she had them both for a moment, one arm about the child, one hand
smoothing the boy's close-cropped hair. And in that moment she was more
splendidly maternal than either of the women who had borne these whom
she now comforted.
It was Fanny who attended to the hotel rooms, to the baby's comfort, to
the railroad tickets, to the ordering of the meals. Theodore was like a
stranger in a strange land. Not only that, he seemed dazed.
“We'll have it out to-night,” Fanny said to herself. “He'll never
get that look off his face until he has told it all. I knew she was a
beast.”
She made him lie down while she attended to schedules, tickets, berths.
She was gone for two hours. When she returned she found him looking
amused, terrified and helpless, all at once, while three men reporters
and one woman special writer bombarded him with questions. The woman
had brought a staff artist with her, and he was now engaged in making a
bungling sketch of Theodore's face, with its ludicrous expression.
Fanny sensed the situation and saved it. She hadn't sold goods all these
years without learning the value of advertising. She came forward now,
graciously (but not too graciously). Theodore looked relieved. Already
he had learned that one might lean on this sister who was so capable, so
bountifully alive.
“Teddy, you're much too tired to talk. Let me talk for you.”
“My sister, Miss Brandeis,” said Teddy, and waved a rather feeble hand
in an inclusive gesture at the interrogatory five.
Fanny smiled. “Do sit down,” she said, “all of you. Tell me, how did you
happen to get on my brother's trail?”
One of the men explained. “We had a list of ship's passengers, of
course. And we knew that Mr. Brandeis was a German violinist. And then
the story of the ship being chased by a French boat. We just missed him
down at the pier--”
“But he isn't a German violinist,” interrupted Fanny. “Please get that
straight. He's American. He is THE American violinist--or will be, as
soon as his concert tour here is well started. It was Schabelitz
himself who discovered my brother, and predicted his brilliant career.
Here”--she had been glancing over the artist's shoulder--“will you let
me make a sketch for you--just for the fun of the thing? I do that kind
of thing rather decently. Did you see my picture called `The Marcher,'
in the Star, at the time of the suffrage parade in May? Yes, that was
mine. Just because he has what we call a butcher haircut, don't think
he's German, because he isn't. You wouldn't call Winnebago, Wisconsin,
Germany, would you?”
She was sketching him swiftly, daringly, masterfully. She was bringing
out the distinction, the suffering, the boyishness in his face, and
toning down the queer little foreign air he had. Toning it, but not
omitting it altogether. She was too good a showman for that. As she
sketched she talked, and as she talked she drew Theodore into the
conversation, deftly, and just when he was needed. She gave them what
they had come for--a story. And a good one. She brought in Mizzi and
Otti, for color, and she saw to it that they spelled those names as they
should be spelled. She managed to gloss over the question of Olga. Ill.
Detained. Last minute. Too brave to sacrifice her husband's American
tour. She finished her sketch and gave it to the woman reporter. It was
an amazingly compelling little piece of work--and yet, not so amazing,
perhaps, when you consider the thing that Fanny Brandeis had put into
it. Then she sent them away, tactfully. They left, knowing all that
Fanny Brandeis had wanted them to know; guessing little that she had
not wanted them to guess. More than that no human being can accomplish,
without the advice of his lawyer.
“Whew!” from Fanny, when the door had closed.
“Gott im Himmel!” from Theodore. “I had forgotten that America was like
that.”
“But America IS like that. And Teddy, we're going to make it sit up and
take notice.”
At that Theodore drooped again. Fanny thought that he looked startlingly
as she remembered her father had looked in those days of her childhood,
when Brandeis' Bazaar was slithering downhill. The sight of him moved
her to a sudden resolve. She crossed swiftly to him, and put one
heartening hand on his shoulder.
“Come on, brother. Out with it. Let's have it all now.”
He reached up for her hand and held it, desperately. “Oh, Fan!” began
Theodore, “Fan, I've been through hell.”
Fanny said nothing. She only waited, quietly, encouragingly. She had
learned when not to talk. Presently he took up his story, plunging
directly into it, as though sensing that she had already divined much.
“She married me for a living. You'll think that's a joke, knowing what
I was earning there, in Vienna, and how you and mother were denying
yourselves everything to keep me. But in a city that circulates a
coin valued at a twentieth of a cent, an American dollar looms up
big. Besides, two of the other girls had got married. Good for nothing
officers. She was jealous, I suppose. I didn't know any of that. I was
flattered to think she'd notice me. She was awfully popular. She has
a kind of wit. I suppose you'd call it that. The other girls were just
coarse, and heavy, and--well--animal. You can't know the rottenness of
life there in Vienna. Olga could keep a whole supper table laughing all
evening. I can see, now, that that isn't difficult when your audience
is made up of music hall girls, and stupid, bullet-headed officers, with
their damned high collars, and their gold braid, and their silly swords,
and their corsets, and their glittering shoes and their miserable petty
poverty beneath all the show. I thought I was a lucky boy. I'd have
pitied everybody in Winnebago, if I'd ever thought of anybody in
Winnebago. I never did, except once in a while of you and mother when
I needed money. I kept on with my music. I had sense enough left, for
that. Besides, it was a habit, by that time. Well, we were married.”
He laughed, an ugly, abrupt little laugh that ended in a moan, and
turned his head and buried his face in Fanny's breast. And Fanny's arm
was there, about his shoulder. “Fanny, you don't--I can't--” He stopped.
Another silence. Fanny's arm tightened its hold. She bent and kissed the
top of the stubbly head, bowed so low now. “Fan, do you remember that
woman in `The Three Musketeers'? The hellish woman, that all men
loved and loathed? Well, Olga's like that. I'm not whining. I'm not
exaggerating. I'm just trying to make you understand. And yet I don't
want you to understand. Only you don't know what it means to have you to
talk to. To have some one who”--he clutched her hand, fearfully--“You do
love me, don't you, Fanny? You do, don't you, Sis?”
“More than any one in the world,” Fanny reassured him, quietly. “The way
mother would have, if she had lived.”
A sigh escaped him, at that, as though a load had lifted from him. He
went on, presently. “It would have been all right if I could have earned
just a little more money.” Fanny shrank at that, and shut her eyes for
a sick moment. “But I couldn't. I asked her to be patient. But you don't
know the life there. There is no real home life. They live in the cafes.
They go there to keep warm, in the winter, and to meet their friends,
and gossip, and drink that eternal coffee, and every coffee house--there
are thousands--is a rendezvous. We had two rooms, comfortable ones, for
Vienna, and I tried to explain to her that if I could work hard, and
get into concert, and keep at the composing, we'd be rich some day, and
famous, and happy, and she'd have clothes, and jewels. But she was too
stupid, or too bored. Olga is the kind of woman who only believes what
she sees. Things got worse all the time. She had a temper. So have
I--or I used to have. But when hers was aroused it was--horrible. Words
that--that--unspeakable words. And one day she taunted me with being a
----with my race. The first time she called me that I felt that I must
kill her. That was my mistake. I should have killed her. And I didn't.”
“Teddy boy! Don't, brother! You're tired. You're excited and worn out.”
“No, I'm not. Just let me talk. I know what I'm saying. There's
something clean about killing.” He brooded a moment over that thought.
Then he went on, doggedly, not raising his voice. His hands were clasped
loosely. “You don't know about the intolerance and the anti-Semitism
in Prussia, I suppose. All through Germany, for that matter. In Bavaria
it's bitter. That's one reason why Olga loathed Munich so. The queer
part of it is that all that opposition seemed to fan something in me;
something that had been smoldering for a long time.” His voice had lost
its dull tone now. It had in it a new timbre. And as he talked he began
to interlard his English with bits of German, the language to which his
tongue had accustomed itself in the past ten years. His sentences, too,
took on a German construction, from time to time. He was plainly excited
now. “My playing began to improve. There would be a ghastly scene with
Olga--sickening--degrading. Then I would go to my work, and I would
play, but magnificently! I tell you, it would be playing. I know. To
fool myself I know better. One morning, after a dreadful quarrel I got
the idea for the concerto, and the psalms. Jewish music. As Jewish as
the Kol Nidre. I wanted to express the passion, and fire, and history of
a people. My people. Why was that? Tell me. Selbst, weiss ich nicht.
I felt that if I could put into it just a millionth part of their
humiliation, and their glory; their tragedy and their triumph; their
sorrow, and their grandeur; their persecution, their weldtschmerz.
Volkschmerz. That was it. And through it all, weaving in and out, one
great underlying motif. Indestructibility. The great cry which says, `We
cannot be destroyed!'”
He stood up, uncertainly. His eyes were blazing. He began to walk up
and down the luxurious little room. Fanny's eyes matched his. She was
staring at him, fascinated, trembling.
She moistened her lips a little with her tongue. “And you've done it?
Teddy! You've done--that!”
Theodore Brandeis stood up, very straight and tall. “Yes,” he said,
simply. “Yes, I've done that.”
She came over to him then, and put her two hands on his shoulders.
“Ted--dear--will you ever forgive me? I'll try to make up for it now.
I didn't know. I've been blind. Worse than blind. Criminal.” She was
weeping now, broken-heartedly, and he was patting her with little
comforting love pats, and whispering words of tenderness.
“Forgive you? Forgive you what?”
“The years of suffering. The years you've had to spend with her. With
that horrible woman--”
“Don't--” He sucked his breath between his teeth. His face had gone
haggard again. Fanny, direct as always, made up her mind that she would
have it all. And now.
“There's something you haven't told me. Tell me all of it. You're my
brother and I'm your sister. We're all we have in the world.” And at
that, as though timed by some miraculous and supernatural stage manager,
there came a cry from the next room; a sleepy, comfortable, imperious
little cry. Mizzi had awakened. Fanny made a step in the direction of
the door. Then she turned back. “Tell me why Olga didn't come. Why isn't
she here with her husband and baby?”
“Because she's with another man.”
“Another--”
“It had been going on for a long time. I was the last to know about it.
It's that way, always, isn't it? He's an officer. A fool. He'll have
to take off his silly corsets now, and his velvet collar, and his shiny
boots, and go to war. Damn him! I hope they'll kill him with a hundred
bayonets, one by one, and leave him to rot on the field. She had been
fooling me all the time, and they had been laughing at me, the two of
them. I didn't find it out until just before this American trip. And
when I confronted her with it she laughed in my face. She said she hated
me. She said she'd rather starve than leave him to come to America with
me. She said I was a fiddling fool. She--” he was trembling and sick
with the shame of it--“God! I can't tell you the things she said.
She wanted to keep Mizzi. Isn't that strange? She loves the baby. She
neglects her, and spoils her, and once I saw her beat her, in a rage.
But she says she loves my Mizzi, and I believe she does, in her own
dreadful way. I promised her, and lied to her, and then I ran away with
Mizzi and her nurse.”
“Oh, I thank God for that!” Fanny cried. “I thank God for that! And now,
Teddy boy, we'll forget all about those miserable years. We'll forget
all about her, and the life she led you. You're going to have your
chance here. You're going to be repaid for every minute of suffering
you've endured. I'll make it up to you. And when you see them applauding
you, calling for you, adoring you, all those hideous years will fade
from your mind, and you'll be Theodore Brandeis, the successful,
Theodore Brandeis, the gifted, Theodore Brandeis, the great! You need
never think of her again. You'll never see her again. That beast! That
woman!”
And at that Theodore's face became distorted and dreadful with pain. He
raised two impotent, shaking arms high above his head. “That's just it!
That's just it! You don't know what love is. You don't know what hate
is. You don't know how I hate myself. Loathe myself. She's all that's
miserable, all that's unspeakable, all that's vile. And if she called
me to-day I'd come. That's it.” He covered his shamed face with his two
hands, so that the words came from him slobberingly, sickeningly. “I
hate her! I hate her! And I want her. I want her. I want her!”