Young Torless by Robert Musil

was the first time in his life that he committed such an act of disrespect towards his parents.
    The effect on him was the opposite of what had been intended. In contrast with the plain view that had been set before him he was again suddenly filled with awareness of all that was problematic and ambiguous in Basini's crime. Shaking his head, he told himself that it still needed thinking about, although he could not give him-self any exact account of the reason for this attitude.
    It was queerest of all when he pursued the matter dreamily rather than with conscious thought. Then at one moment Basini seemed to him comprehensible, commonplace, and clear-cut, just as his parents and his friends seemed to see him: and the next moment this Basini would vanish, only to come again, and yet again, as a small and even smaller figure, tiny and sometimes luminous against a deep, very deep background....
    And then one night-it was very late and everyone was asleep-Törless was waked by someone shaking him.
    Beineberg was sitting on the edge of his bed. This was so unusual that he at once realised something extraordinary must be afoot.
    “Get up. Don't make a noise, we don't want anyone to notice. I want you to come upstairs, I've got something to tell you.”
    Törless quickly put some clothes on, got into his slippers, and threw his coat round his shoulders.
    When they were up in their lair, Beineberg put all the obstacles back in their places with special care. Then he made tea.
    Törless, who was still heavy with sleep, relaxed in enjoyment of the golden-yellow, aromatic warmth pervading him. He leaned back in a corner and curled up; he was expecting a surprise.
    At last Beineberg said: “Reiting is up to something behind our backs.”
    Törless felt no astonishment; he accepted it as a matter of course that the affair must necessarily develop in some such way, and he felt almost as though he had been waiting for this. Involuntarily he said: “I thought as much.”
    “Oh? You thought so, did you? But I don't suppose you noticed anything? That wouldn't be at all like you.
    “That's true, there wasn't anything special that struck me. And I haven't been racking my brains about the whole thing.”
    “But I've been keeping a good look-out. I didn't trust Reiting from the very beginning. I suppose you know Basini's paid me back my money. And where do you think he got it? D'you think it was his own? No.”
    'And so you think Reiting has been up to something?”
    'Definitely.”
    For a moment all Törless could imagine was that now Reiting had got entangled in a similar way himself.
    “So you think Reiting has done what -----?”
    “What an idea! Reiting simply gave Basini some of his own money, so that he could settle his debt to me.”
    “But I can't see any good reason why he should do that.”
    “Neither could I for a long time. Still, it must have struck you too how Reiting stood up for Basini right from the start. You were quite right then. It would really have been the most natural thing to have had the fellow chucked out. But I knew what I was doing. I didn't take your side at the time, because I thought to myself: I must get to the bottom of this, I must see what he's up to. Frankly, I can't say for certain whether he had it all worked out quite clearly at that stage or whether he only wanted to wait and see what would come of it once he made completely sure of Basini. Anyway, I know how things stand now.”
    “Well?”
    “Wait, the whole story isn't so simple. I take it you know about what happened in the school four years ago?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well-that affair!”
    “Vaguely. I only know there was a great row about some swinishness that had been going on, and quite a number of chaps got expelled.”
    “Yes, that's what I mean. Once in the holidays I found out sonic more about it from one of the chaps in that class. It was all because of a pretty boy there was in the class, that a lot of them were in love