On their journey Wahnschaffe told Crammon about his family: his sister
Judith, his older brother Christian, his mother, who had the most
beautiful pearls in Europe. “When she wears them,” he said, “she looks
like an Indian goddess.” His father he described as an amiable man
with unseen backgrounds of the soul.
Crammon was anxious to get as much light as possible on the life and
history of one of those great and rich bourgeois families which had won
in the race against the old aristocracy. Here, it seemed to him, was a
new world, an undiscovered country which was still in the blossoming
stage and which was to be feared.
His cleverly put questions got him no farther. What he did learn was a
story of silent, bitter rivalry between this brother and Christian, who
seemed to Wolfgang to be preferred to himself to an incomprehensible
degree. He heard a story of doubt and complaint and scorn, and of words
that the mother of the two had uttered to a stranger: “You don’t know
my son Christian? He is the most precious thing God ever made.”
It was cheap enough, Wolfgang asserted, to praise a horse in the
stable, one that had never been sent to the Derby because it was
thought to be too noble and precious. Crammon was amused by the
sporting simile. Why was that cheap, he asked, and what was its exact
meaning?
Wolfgang said that it applied to Christian, who had as yet proved
himself in no way, nor accomplished anything despite his twenty-three
years. He had passed his final examinations at college with difficulty;
he was no luminary in any respect. No one could deny that he had an
admirable figure, an elegant air, a complexion like milk and blood. He
had also, it was not to be denied, a charm so exquisite that no man or
woman could withstand him. But he was cold as a hound’s nose and smooth
as an eel, and as immeasurably spoiled and arrogant as though the whole
world had been made for his sole benefit.
“You will succumb to him as every one does,” Wolfgang said finally, and
there was something almost like hatred in his voice.
They arrived in Waldleiningen on a rainy evening of October. The house
was full of guests.