ALFRED LICHTENSTEIN
477
Then Kuno Kohn said: "Death is an unbearable thought. For those of
us who are without God. We are damned to live through it in advance
hundreds of nights. And to find no way past it." He became very quiet.
Mechenmal wanted to show his friend Kohn that he too could express
himself about perverse problems. He thought it over, and said: "1 have a dif–
ferent version, little Kuno, little Kohn. However, it is an emotional matter.
I also tell myself thank God for those who have no God. God is nonsense.
To waste a word on the topic is unworthy of a thinking man. But listen, I
have no need of God-not in life, not in death. Death without God is very
beautiful. It is my wish. I think it's wonderful simply to be dead. Without
heaven. Without rebirth. Utterly dead. 1 can't wait. Life for me is too hard.
Too stimulating."
He wanted to speak further. There was a knocking at the door; Kohn
opened it. Ilka Leipke quickly came in. She said, "Good evening Herr
Kohn. Excuse me for disturbing you." She screamed at Mechenmal: "So, 1
catch you here. So, for this you have abandoned me. You're only using my
body. You have never grasped my soul." She wept. She sobbed. Mechenmal
tried to calm her down . That irritated her even more. She shouted: "To
betray me with a crippled Kohn.... I'll report you to the police, Mr. Kohn.
You should be ashamed of yourselves, you swine...." She had a crying fi t.
Kuno Kohn was incapable of responding.Mechenmal pulled her up from the
floor upon which she had thrown herself screaming. He said with a changed,
stern voice, that her behavior was unseemly, that she had no grounds for jeal–
ousy for, after all, he had no obligations. Then Ilka Leipke looked at the
hunchbacked Kohn humbly, like a beaten little dog. She was very quiet. She
followed the angry Mechenmal out the door. When Kohn was alone, he
gradually became enraged. He thought: such a rude person...and at intervals:
how upset the cow had become. How jealous she is of me. One of the few
women who pleases me...and she goes and chooses the little animal
Mechenmal. That is atrocious. Early the next morning Kuno Kohn stood
in Miss Leipke's drawing room, trembling like an actor with stage fright.
When the maid brought Kuno Kohn's card, Miss Leipke was reading the
forbidden pamphlet, "The Suicide of a Fashionable Lady. Or, How a Fash–
ionable Lady Committed Suicide." Her eyes were filled with tears. When
she had finished reading the entire pamphlet, she freshened her makeup.
Finally, covered only by a silk morning coat, she appeared in the drawing
room. Kuno Kohn was red up to his ears. Groaning, he said that he had
come to apologize for yesterday's scene, that Miss Leipke did him wrong,
that she knew him too briefly. He had, after all, inner worth. Then he
spoke in praise of his friend, the worthy Mechenmal; but he did not dis–
guise the man's lack of a refined ilmer feeling about life. Miss Leipke
looked at him with beguiling eyes. He turned the conversation to art. Then
