I Loved a German by Anton H. Tammsaare & Christopher Moseley

Author:Anton H. Tammsaare & Christopher Moseley [Tammsaare, Anton H. & Moseley, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Psychological, Romance, General, Historical, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781908251831
Google: 7MM3tAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1908251832
Publisher: Vagabond Voices
Published: 2018-08-14T23:00:00+00:00

When I got back to my workplace, greatly delayed, I had a feeling that the whole world could read in my face what had happened to me in the past hour and a half. And evidently it was not only my feeling, for otherwise why would my colleague, who had previously advised me so personally and sagely, ask me without demur, “No luck, eh?”

“No,” I replied.

“Did you want to get a new one or extend an old one?”

“Get a new one,” I explained.

“Then things are not too bad,” he consoled me. “Loans that aren’t agreed are never called in, and bonds that aren’t signed cannot be protested against through a notary.”

Of course these were very wise words, but they didn’t ease my mind. I was going over the same old question: what now? – and could find no answer. When the depressing working hours were over finally, I hurried home impatiently, and I almost wished that I wouldn’t meet Erika at the lunch table that day, or better still, that I would never see her again. In my letter box at home I found a letter addressed in an unknown hand, which left me quite indifferent, like everything else. I tossed it carelessly on the table and then clean forgot about it.

But, strangely, my mood evidently had no effect on the world or other people: the landlady was much the same as before at the lunch table, offering food like mad and talking of love, as if there were some secret bond between those two things, while the landlord threw his clumsy jokes into the chatter, and the children seemed like wild creatures who had just been unleashed from their tethers. Even Miss Erika appeared, and sat at the table as if she knew nothing of my visit to her grandfather, or else had not the faintest idea of its outcome. There was something unusual only about me, for otherwise the landlady would hardly have set me to worrying so often about the young lady, as if she wanted to keep me alert with her words.

“The only young lady at the table, and she is left on her own,” moaned the landlady on Erika’s behalf. “Can your men, I mean the Germans, be so obtuse and impolite?”

“I’ve eaten so rarely with gentlemen at table that it’s hard for me to judge,” Erika replied to the landlady’s question. “The only gentleman I know well is my grandfather, but what attention or politeness can I expect from him? My aunt and I both look after him.”

“Mr Studious would probably like ladies to look after him,” said the landlady.

“So it should be, that ladies look after men, not the other way around,” said the landlord.

“Why should that be?” countered the landlady.

“Because there are more women than men,” explained her husband. “What’s more, they’re trying to take over all the men’s occupations – well, such as serving at table here. At least I would have nothing against it.”

“What do you think about it, miss? I don’t dare to argue with the young man about it today.

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