BLUMFELD, AN ELDERLY BACHELOR
57
but the balls know how to elude him and escape being hit. Now as
he goes for
his
pipe, -they follow right after; he shufHes along with
his slippers, takes irregular strides, but still the impact of the balls fol–
lows upon every step, almost without pause, keeping pace with
him
step for step. Blumfeld whirls about suddenly to see how they manage
this.
But scarcely has he turned around than the balls describe a semi–
circle and are already behind
him
again; and that is repeated as
often as he turns. Like menials they try to avoid staying in front of
him. Up to the moment they have only dared, apparently, to intro–
duce themselves to him, but now they have fl,lready entered upon
their service.
In all exceptional cases before this, where his strength was not
equal to mastering a situation, Blumfeld.has always chosen the stop–
gap of acting as though he noticed nothing amiss. It has often helped,
and in most cases has at least improved the situation. So he now be–
haves accordingly; stands before the pipe-rack, selects, with pursed
lips, a pipe, packs it especially solid out of the tobacco pouch ready at
hand, and serenely lets the balls go on bouncing behind him. But
he delays going to the table. To hear the measured beat of the boun–
cing and
his
own footsteps almost pains
him.
So he stands there
packing
his
pipe for a needlessly long time and estima,ting the distance
that separates him from the table. Finally, however, he overcomes
his
weakness and travels the distance back with such stampings that he
doesn't hear the balls at all. When he sits down, they bounce behind
his
chair, once again as audible as before.
Within reach above the table is a shelf set into the wall, on which
stands the decanter of cherry brandy, surrounded by little glasses.
Next to it lies a bundle of issues of the French newspaper. (Only to–
day a new number arrived, and Blumfeld now takes it down. The
brandy he forgets completely; he even has the -feeling that today he
would not let himself be kept from his usual habits except out of
solace; furthermore, he has no real need to read. Contrary to his
usual custom of leafing through the paper page by page, he opens it to
a convenient place, and finds there a large photograph. He forces
himself to examine it more closely. It represents the meeting between
the Czar of Russia and the President of France. It is taking place
aboard a ship. Roundabout in the distance there are many other ships,
e smoke from their funnels vanishing into the clear sky. Both the
zar and the President have just hastened forward to meet each other
d are now shaking hands. Behind the Czar, and behind the President
well, stand two gentlemen. In contrast to the happy faces of the
zar and the President, the faces of their companions are very seri–
us. The glances of both groups of companions are centered on
