60
PA RTI S AN RE V I EW
thin, unsure handwriting. I begin to read, leaf through the pages and
recognize that it must be a very important letter and apparently from
F.'s youngest sister. I eagerly begin to read, then my neighbor on the
right, I don't know whether man or woman, probably a child, looks
down over my arm at the letter. I scream, "No!" The round table of
nervous people begins to tremble. I have probably caused a disaster. I
attempt to apologize with a few hasty words in order to go on with
the reading. I bend over my letter again, only to wake up without re–
sistance, as if awakened by my own scream. With complete awareness
I force myself to fall asleep again, the scene reappears, in fact I quickly
read two or three more misty lines of the letter, nothing of which I
remember, and lose the dream in further sleep.
The story :
In
the story which follows the dream entry in the
diary, the dream details of "a message" and "an interruption" are
brought together again. Following is a summary of the sketch:
The old merchant Messner, laboriously ascending the stairs to
his room, is confronted by a young man who has stationed himself
in a dark corner. The merchant "still groaning from the exertion of
his climb" demands to know who this is and what he wants. The
young man introduces himself as a student named Kette. He has
come to deliver a message to the merchant. The student wishes to
discuss the message in Messner's room. Messner obstinately refuses.
"I do not receive guests at night."
If
the student wishes to give him
the message, he can give it now, in the hall. The student protests.
The merchant dismisses him curtly. He is not interested in the mes–
sage. "Every message that I am spared is a gain. I am not curious."
He enters his room, locks the door upon the protesting Kette. A
moment later there is a persistent knocking on the door. "The knock–
ing came the way children at play scatter their knocks over the
whole door, now down low, dull against the wood, now up high, clear
against the glass." The merchant approaches the door a stick in
hand. "Is anyone still out there?" "Yes. Please open the door for
me." Messner opens the door and advances toward the student with
his stick. "Don't hit me," the student warns him. "Then go!" The
merchant points his finger at the stair. "But I can't," said the student
and ran up to Messner so surprisingly... .
The story breaks off here, just as the dream breaks off at the
point, "I have probably caused a disaster" and with the dreamer's
hasty apology.
