98
PARTISAN REVIEW
speaking, for Blumfeld; he.is no visionary. Though respect and recog–
nition be ever so fine, he can do without them. Despite everything, he
will
stick to his post till the end, so long as things somehow go on. In
any case, he is in the right, and even though it
som~times
takes a long
time, the right must finally
win
out. So, in the end, Blumfeld actually
received two assistants--and what assistants, indeed! One could al–
most believe that Ottomar had seen he could show his contempt for
the department even more clearly by granting
him
assistants like these
than by refusing to give him any at all. It was even possible that Ot–
tomar had put Blumfeld off so long simply because he had peen look–
ing for two such assistants and-as was quite likely-had not been
able to find them any earlier. Blumfeld could not complain now; one
could foresee the answer: he had received two assistants when he
had asked for only one. Ottomar managed everything so clever–
ly. To be sure, Blumfeld complained all the same, not because he still
expected any help, but only because his needs absolutely drove him to
it. He did not even complain explicitly, but simply by the way, when
some passing opportunity presented itself. Nevertheless, the rumor
soon spread among his spiteful colleagues that someone had asked
Ottomar if it were possible that Blumfeld, who had just received such
extraordinary aid, was still complaining. Thereupon Ottomar had
supposedly answered yes, that Blumfeld was still complaining-but
with justice. He, Ottomar, had finally looked into the matter and
in·
tended little by little to assign Blumfeld one assistant for every seam–
stress, hence about sixty altogether. And should these still not suffice,
he would send him even more, and not call quits till the madhouse
that had been developing in Blumfeld's department for years should
be full. Now Ottomar's manner of speaking was well imitated
in
these remarks; but Blumfeld had no doubt that he himself would
be
far from talking about him in such a way. The whole thing was an
invention of the dawdlers in the offices on the first floor. Blumfeld
could have passed over it lightly had it not been for the presence of the
assistants. But there they stood and were not to be budged. Pale,
weak children. According to their papers they should already have
been past school age, though in reality one could hardly believe it.
Indeed, one would have hardly wanted to entrust them yet to a teach–
er, so plainly did they still belong at their mother's knee. They could
not yet move about intelligently, and to stand for long made them un–
commonly tired, especially during the first weeks.
If
one left them
unwatched, they instantly collapsed in their weakness and stood lean–
ing in a corner,
all
stooped over. Blumfeld tried to make them under–
stand that they would cripple themselves for the rest of their lives
if
they always gave in so to their laziness. It was even risky to give the
