enveloped in a luxurious fur, but I had recognised her as the terrified woman who had sought refuge from Wassertrum in my room in Hahnpassgasse. It did not surprise me at all; I had not expected it to be anyone else.
My eyes did not leave her face, which presumably seemed paler in the twilit alcove than it was in reality. Her beauty took my breath away and I stood there, spellbound. It was all I could do not to fall down on my knees and kiss her feet because she was the one I was to help, because she had chosen me for the task.
“Please, I beg you from the bottom of my heart to forget – at least for as long as we are in here – the situation in which you saw me when we last met”, she went on urgently. “I don’t know how you feel about such things …”
All I could think of to say was, “I am an old man, but never in my life have I been so arrogant as to feel called upon to sit in judgment on my fellow men.”
“I thank you, Herr Pernath”, was her warm but simple reply. “But now I must ask you to listen patiently, to see if you can help me in my desperate situation, or at least advise me.” I could feel she was in the grip of some terrible fear, her voice trembled. “That night, in the studio, that was when, to my horror, I suddenly realised that hideous monster was deliberately spying on me. For months already I had noticed that wherever I went – whether alone, or with my husband or … with … with Dr. Savioli – the villainous face of that junk-dealer would always appear somewhere in the vicinity. Awake or asleep, those squinting eyes haunted me. There is still no sign of what his intentions are, but that only increases the fear that torments me at night: when is he going to slip the noose round my neck?
At first Dr. Savioli tried to reassure me. What could a poor wretch like this Aaron Wassertrum do? At worst it would be some petty blackmail or something of the kind. But his lips went white, every time the name of Wassertrum was mentioned, and I began to suspect that, to reassure me, Dr. Savioli was concealing something from me, something dreadful that might cost him his life – or me mine!
And then I learnt what it was that he was carefully trying to conceal from me: this Wassertrum has been to see him several times, at night, in his apartment! I know something is going on, I can sense with every fibre of my body that something is gradually tightening round us like a snake crushing its prey. What does that murderer think he’s doing? Why can’t Dr. Savioli shake him off? No, no, I won’t put up with it any longer, I must do something – anything – before it drives me mad.”
I tried to put in a few words of comfort, but she interrupted me. “And in the last few days the nightmare that is threatening to choke me has taken on more and more tangible form. Dr. Savioli has suddenly fallen ill; I cannot contact him, cannot visit him without the constant fear of my love for him being discovered. He is delirious, and all that I could find out is that in his fever he imagines he is being pursued by some monster with a hare-lip: Aaron Wassertrum!
I know how brave Dr. Savioli is, so you can imagine how much it terrifies me to know that he has collapsed, paralysed by a fear which to me just seems like the dark presence of the Angel of Death.
You will say that I am a coward. If my love for him is so great, why do I not openly admit it, why do I not give up everything for him, wealth, honour, reputation and so on? But” – she screamed out the words so that they echoed round the galleries – “I cannot ! I have my child, my dear little girl! I can’t give up my girl! Do you think my husband would let me keep her? Here, Herr Pernath, take this” – frantically she tore open a bag that was stuffed full of strings of pearls and jewels – “and give it to this Wassertrum. I know how rapacious he is, he can have everything I possess, but he must leave me my child. That will keep him quiet,
My eyes did not leave her face, which presumably seemed paler in the twilit alcove than it was in reality. Her beauty took my breath away and I stood there, spellbound. It was all I could do not to fall down on my knees and kiss her feet because she was the one I was to help, because she had chosen me for the task.
“Please, I beg you from the bottom of my heart to forget – at least for as long as we are in here – the situation in which you saw me when we last met”, she went on urgently. “I don’t know how you feel about such things …”
All I could think of to say was, “I am an old man, but never in my life have I been so arrogant as to feel called upon to sit in judgment on my fellow men.”
“I thank you, Herr Pernath”, was her warm but simple reply. “But now I must ask you to listen patiently, to see if you can help me in my desperate situation, or at least advise me.” I could feel she was in the grip of some terrible fear, her voice trembled. “That night, in the studio, that was when, to my horror, I suddenly realised that hideous monster was deliberately spying on me. For months already I had noticed that wherever I went – whether alone, or with my husband or … with … with Dr. Savioli – the villainous face of that junk-dealer would always appear somewhere in the vicinity. Awake or asleep, those squinting eyes haunted me. There is still no sign of what his intentions are, but that only increases the fear that torments me at night: when is he going to slip the noose round my neck?
At first Dr. Savioli tried to reassure me. What could a poor wretch like this Aaron Wassertrum do? At worst it would be some petty blackmail or something of the kind. But his lips went white, every time the name of Wassertrum was mentioned, and I began to suspect that, to reassure me, Dr. Savioli was concealing something from me, something dreadful that might cost him his life – or me mine!
And then I learnt what it was that he was carefully trying to conceal from me: this Wassertrum has been to see him several times, at night, in his apartment! I know something is going on, I can sense with every fibre of my body that something is gradually tightening round us like a snake crushing its prey. What does that murderer think he’s doing? Why can’t Dr. Savioli shake him off? No, no, I won’t put up with it any longer, I must do something – anything – before it drives me mad.”
I tried to put in a few words of comfort, but she interrupted me. “And in the last few days the nightmare that is threatening to choke me has taken on more and more tangible form. Dr. Savioli has suddenly fallen ill; I cannot contact him, cannot visit him without the constant fear of my love for him being discovered. He is delirious, and all that I could find out is that in his fever he imagines he is being pursued by some monster with a hare-lip: Aaron Wassertrum!
I know how brave Dr. Savioli is, so you can imagine how much it terrifies me to know that he has collapsed, paralysed by a fear which to me just seems like the dark presence of the Angel of Death.
You will say that I am a coward. If my love for him is so great, why do I not openly admit it, why do I not give up everything for him, wealth, honour, reputation and so on? But” – she screamed out the words so that they echoed round the galleries – “I cannot ! I have my child, my dear little girl! I can’t give up my girl! Do you think my husband would let me keep her? Here, Herr Pernath, take this” – frantically she tore open a bag that was stuffed full of strings of pearls and jewels – “and give it to this Wassertrum. I know how rapacious he is, he can have everything I possess, but he must leave me my child. That will keep him quiet,
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