68
PARTISAN REVIEW
sidewalk table drinking beer and observing the people passing. She
mentioned that she was studying philosophy under Klude. An Ameri–
can studying Klude and seeing us, as only strangers can see us, with a
mixture of envy and a certain disdain.
We Germans like to draw attention to our most conspicuous flaws ,
since the uncertainty and doubt we arouse in strangers saves us from
being inundated by a deluge of uncritical admiration.
10.
Did I say this?
If
I did I retract it immediately.
What does Daphne think of me?
Daphne moved into the building less than three months ago. She had
found her apartment the way I had, by looking at the real estate pages
of the
Wiirtenburger Neue Zeit.
She spoke a fluent German and had no
difficulty in following the lectures at the Wurtenburger University, a
university, incidentally, with a reputation second to none in ancient
and medieval history, the history of religion, and philosophy. She had
studied German in America. Why not French or Italian. I wanted to
study under Klude, she admitted shyly. Was he the principal reason
why she had chosen German, I asked with what must have been a look
of astonishment. She laughed. No, she had been exaggerating slightly.
By the time she came across the work of Klude, she had already been
taking German at college. Her father, she added, had a great many
friends in Germany. He had been there during the occupation.
It
was
he who encouraged her to study German. When I inquired if he was
connected to a university, she responded with a curt no.
When Daphne moved into her apartment she found an attractive
armchair, a large bed, and a chest of drawers the former tenant had left
behind. There may have been a few other things, but the super and the
doorman always had first picking. I was surprised that they had not
taken the armchair or the chest of drawers. They wouldn't have been
difficult to move. I too have discarded a great many things, yet I
continue to cling to so much that has clearly outlived its usefulness.
Where did you live before you moved into this building, asked
Daphne.
I was deliberately vague. Oh, here and there. I chose this place
because I wanted some privacy. I didn't want to run into people I knew
everytime I stepped out of the front entrance. When Daphne discovered
that I had been a former student of Klude she danced a little jig, which I
