"
Ulrich telephoned the grocery store where Clarisse was in the habit ofdoing her local shopping, and while he was waiting for her to come to the phone he heard about the misfortune the General was bemoaning.
Ulrich telephoned the grocery store where Clarisse was in the habit ofdoing her local shopping, and while he was waiting for her to come to the phone he heard about the misfortune the General was bemoaning.
Musil - Man Without Qualities - v2
He was looking at her even now, from the dark mirror of her anguish: which made Agathe remember that she wanted to kill herself.
She had a feeling that it was to spite him that she had run away to God when she had left home to kill herself.
But that intention now seemed exhausted, to have sunk back to its source, which was that Ulrich had hurt her feelings.
She was angry with him, she still felt that, but the birds were singing, and now she heard them again.
She was just as confused as before, but it was now a joyful confusion.
She wanted to do something, but it should strike out at Ulrich, not just at herself.
The endless stupor in which she had been kneeling gave way to the warmth of the blood streaming back into her limbs as she rose to her feet.
When she looked up, a man was standing beside her. She was em- barrassed, not knowing how long he had been watching her. As her glance, still dark with agitation, met his, she saw that he was looking at her with unconcealed sympathy, manifestly hoping to inspire her with wholehearted confidence. The man was tall and lean and wore dark clothes, and a short blond beard covered his cheeks and chin. Beneath his mustache one could easily make out full, soft lips, which were in remarkably youthful contrast to the many gray hairs already scattered among the blond ones, as if age had forgotten them in the growth of hair. It was altogether not an easy face to read. The first impression led one to think of a secondary-school teacher; the sever- ity in this face was not carved in hardwood but rather resembled something soft that had hardened under petty daily frustrations. But if one started with this softness, on which the manly beard seemed to have been planted in order to adjust it to a system with which the wearer concurred, then one realized that this originally rather ef- feminate face showed hard, almost ascetic details, clearly the work of a relentlessly active will upon the soft basic material.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1049
Agathe did not know what to make of this face, which left her sus- pended between attraction and repulsion; all she understood was that this man wanted to help her.
"Life offers us just as much opportunity to strengthen the will as to weaken it," the stranger said, wiping his glasses, which had been misted over, in order to see her better. "One should never run away from problems, but try to master them! " Agathe stared at him in sur- prise. He had obviously been watching her for quite some time, be- cause his words were emerging from the middle of some interior monologue. Startled by his own voice, he raised his hat, his manners belatedly catching up with this essential gesture of courtesy, then quickly regained his composure and went straight on: "Do forgive my asking whether I may be of some help," he said. "It seems to me that it is truly easier to speak of one's pain to a stranger, even con- cerning a grave shock to the self, such as I believe I am witnessing here? "
Evidently it was not without effort that the stranger spoke to her; apparently he had felt called upon to do so out of duty, as an act of charity; and now that he found himself walking beside this beautiful woman, he was literally struggling for words. For Agathe had simply stood up and begun slowly to walk with him away from the grave and out from under the trees into the open space at the edge ofthe hills, neither of them deciding whether they wanted to choose one of the paths leading downward, or which one. Instead, they walked along the hilltop for quite a distance, talking, then turned back, and then turned back to walk in the original direction once more; neither of them knew where the other had meant to go originally, and neither wanted to interfere with the other's plans.
'Won't you tell me why you were crying? " the stranger persisted, in the mild tones of a physician asking where it hurts.
Agathe shook her head. "It wouldn't be easy to explain," she said, and suddenly asked him: "But tell me something else: What makes you so sure you can help me without knowing me? I'd be inclined to think that one can't help anyone! " .
Her companion did not answer right away. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but seemed to force himself to hold back. Fi- nally, he said: "One can probably only help someone who is suffering from something one has experienced oneself. "
1050 • THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
He fell silent. Agathe laughed at the thought that this man could suppose himself to have been through what she was suffering, which would have been repellent to him had he known what it was. But her companion seemed not to hear this laugh, or to regard it as a rude- ness born of nerves. After a pause, he said calmly: "Of course, I don't mean that anyone has a right to imagine that he can tell anyone else what to do. But you see, fear in a catastrophe is infectious-and suc- cessful escape is also infectious! I mean just having escaped as from a fire, when everyone has lost his head and run into the flames: what an immense help when a single person stands outside, waving, does nothing but wave and shout incomprehensibly that there is a way out. . . . "
Agathe nearly laughed again at the horrible ideas this kindly man harbored; but just because they seemed so out of character, they molded his wax-soft face almost uncannily.
"You talk like a fireman! " she retorted, deliberately adopting the teasing, frivolous tone ofhigh society to hide her curiosity. "Still, you must have formed some notion of the kind of catastrophe I'm in- volved in, surely? '' Unintentionally, the seriousness of her scorn showed through, for the simple idea that this man presumed to offer her help aroused her indignation by the equally simple gratitud~ that welled up in her. The stranger looked at her in astonishment/ then collected himself and said almost in rebuke: "You are probaMy still too young to know how simple life is. I t only becomes hopelessly con- fused when one is thinking of oneself; but as soon as one stops think- ing of oneself and asks oneself how to help someone else, it's quite simple! "
Agathe thought it over in silence. And whether it was her silence or the inviting distance into which his words took wing, the stranger went on, without looking at her:
"It's a modem superstition to overestimate the personal. There's so much talk today about cultivating one's personality, living one's life to the full, and affirming life. But all this fuzzy and ambiguous v e r b i a g e o n l y b e t r a y s t h e u s e r ' s n e e d t o b e f o g t h e r e a l m e a n i n g o f his protest. What, exactly, is to be affirmed? Anything and everything, higgledy-piggledy? Evolution is always associated with resistance, an American thinker has said. We cannot develop one side ofour nature without stunting another. Then what's to be lived to the full? The
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 0 5 1
mind or the instincts? Every passing whim or one's character? Self- ishness or love? If our higher nature is to fulfill itself, the lower must learn renunciation and obedience! "
Agathe was considering why it should be simpler to take care of others than of oneself. She was one of those completely nonegotisti- cal characters who may always be thinking about themselves, but not for their own benefit, which differs far more from the usual selfish- ness, which is always on the lookout for its own advantage, than does the complacent unselfishness ofthose who are always worrying about their fellow human beings. So what her companion was saying was at bottom foreign to her nature, and yet it somehow moved her, and the words he seized hold of so forcefully sailed alarmingly before her eyes as though their meaning were more to be seen in the air than heard. Also, they happened to be walking along a ridge that gave Agathe a marvelous view of the deep curving valley below, a position that evidently gave her companion the sense of being in a pulpit or on a lecture platform. She stopped and with her hat, which all this time she had been swinging carelessly in her hand, she drew a line through the stranger's argument: "So you have formed your own pic- ture of me," she said. "I can see it shining through your words, and it isn't flattering. "
The tall gentleman seemed dismayed, for he hadn't meant to hurt her, and Agathe looked at him with a friendly laugh. ''You seem to be confusing me with the cause of the liberated personality, and a rather neurotic and unpleasant personality at that! " she maintained.
"I was only speaking of the underlying principle of the personal life," he said apologetically. "I must confess that the situation in which I found you suggested to me that you might want some helpful advice. The underlying principle of life is so widely misunderstood nowadays. Our entire modern neurosis, with all its excesses, arises solely from a flabby inner state in which the will is lacking, for with- out a special effort ofwill no one can achieve the integrity and stabil- ity that lifts a person above the obscure confusion of the organism! "
Here again were two words, "integrity" and "stability," that echoed her old longings and self-accusations. "Do tell me what you mean by that," she asked him. "Surely there can only really be a will when one has a goal? "
"What I mean doesn't matter," was the answer she received, in a
1052 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
tone both mild and brusque. "Don't all the great ancient scriptures of mankind tell us with utmost clarity what to do and not to do? "
Agathe was disconcerted.
"To set up fundamental ideals of life," her companion explained, "requires such a penetrating knowledge of life and of people, and such a heroic mastery of the passions and egotism, as has been granted to only very few individuals in the course of thousands of years. And these teachers of mankind have throughout the ages al- ways taught the same truths. "
Agathe instinctively resisted, as would anyone who considers her young flesh and blood better than the bones of dead sages.
"But precepts formulated thousands of years ago can't possibly apply to conditions today! " she cried.
"Those precepts are not nearly as foreign as is claimed by skeptics, who are out of touch with living experience and self-knowledge," her chance companion answered, with bitter satisfaction. "Life's deepest truths are not arrived at in debate, as Plato already said. Man hears them as the living meaning and fulfillment of his self. Believe me, what makes the human being truly free, and what takes away his freedom, what gives him true bliss and what destroys it, isn't subject to 'progress'-it is something every genuinely alive person knows perfectly well in his own heart, if he will just listen to it! "
Agathe liked the expression "living meaning," but then something suddenly occurred to her: "Are you religious? " she asked him. She looked at her companion with curiosity. He gave no answer.
''You're not a priest, by any chance . . . ? " she continued, but was reassured by his beard, for the rest of his appearance suddenly sug- gested that surprising possibility. It must be said to her credit that she would not have been more astounded had he casually referred to "our sublime ruler, the divine Augustus. " She knew that religion plays a great role in politics, but one is so used to not taking ideas bandied about in public life seriously that to expect the "Christian" parties to be composed of true believers is the same kind of exagger- ation as expecting every postal clerk to be a philatelist.
After a lengthy, somewhat wavering pause, the stranger replied: "I would prefer not to answer your question; you are too remote from all that. "
But Agathe was seized with a lively curiosity.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1053
''I'd like to know who you are! " she demanded to be told, and this was, after all, a feminine privilege that was not to be denied. He showed the same, slightly comical hesitation as before, when he had belatedly raised his hat to her. His arm seemed to twitch as ifhe were thinking of thus saluting her again, but then something in him stiff- ened, as though one army of thoughts had battled another and won, instead of a trifling gesture being playfully performed.
"My name is Lindner, and I teach at the Franz Ferdinand Gymna- sium," he said, adding after a moment's thought: "I also lecture at the University. "
"Then you might know my brother? " Agathe asked in relief, adding Ulrich's name. "He read a paper there recently, if I'm not mistaken, at the Pedagogical Society, on Mathematics and the Humanities, or something like that. "
"Only by name. We've never met. Oh yes, I did attend that lec- ture," Lindner admitted. He seemed to say it with a certain reserve, but Agathe's attention was caught by his next question:
"Your father must have been the distinguished jurist? "
"Yes. He died recently, and I'm now staying with my brother," Agathe said freely. 'Won't you come and see us? "
''I'm afraid I have no time for social calls," Lindner replied brusquely, his eyes cast down in uncertainty.
"In that case I hope you won't have any objections if I come to see you sometime," Agathe said, paying no attention to his reluctance. "I do need your advice. " And since he had been calling her "Fraulein," she said: ''I'm married; Hagauer is my name. "
"Then you're the wife of the noted Professor of Education Hagauer . . . ! " Lindner cried. He had begun the sentence on a note of high enthusiasm, but it wavered and became hesitant. For Hagauer was two things: he was in education and he was a progres- sive in education. Lindner was actually opposed to his ideas, but how bracing it was to recognize, through the uncertain mists of a female psyche, which has just proposed the impossible notion of inviting herself to a man's house, the familiar form of an enemy; it was the drop from the second to the first of these sentiments that was re- flected in his change of tone.
Agathe had noticed it. She did not know whether to tell Lindner of the situation between her husband and herself. If she told him, it
1054 ·THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
might put an immediate end to everything between herself and this new friend, that much was clear. And she would have been sony; precisely because there was so much about Lindner that made her laugh at him, he also made her feel that she could trust him. The impression, borne out by his appearance, that this man seemed to want nothing for himself oddly moved her to be forthright with him: he quieted all longing, and that made frankness quite natural.
''I'm about to get a divorce," she finally admitted.
A silence followed. Lindner now had a downcast look. It put Agathe out of all patience with him. Finally, Undner said with an offended smile: "I thought it must be something like that when I first caught sight ofyou! "
"Does that mean you're opposed to divorce too? " Agathe cried, giving free rein to her irritation with him. "Of course, you're bound to be against it. But it really does put you rather behind the times! "
"At least I can't regard it as matter-of-factly as you do. " Lindner defended himself pensively, took off his glasses, polished them, put them on again, and contemplated Agathe. "It seemed to me you have too little willpower," he stated.
"Willpower? My will, for what it's worth, is to get a divorce! " Agathe cried, knowing it was not a very sensible answer.
"Please don't misunderstand me," Lindner gently corrected her. "I am of course willing to believe that you have good reasons. It's only that I see things in a different light. The free and easy morals prevailing nowadays amount, in effect, to nothing more than a sign that the individual is chained hand and foot to his own ego and inca- pable ofliving and acting from any wider perspective. Our esteemed poets," he added jealously, with an attempt at humor about Agathe's perfeiVid pilgrimage to the poet's grave, an attempt that only turned sour on his lips, "who play up to the sentiments ofyoung ladies, and are therefore overestimated by them, have a far easier role to play than I, when I tell you that marriage is an institution of responsibility and the mastery of the human being over its passions! Before anyone dissociates himself from the external safeguards that mankind has wisely set up against its own undependability, he should recognize that isolation from and disobedience to the greater whole do far more harm than the physical disappointments we so fear! "
"That sounds like a military code for archangels," Agathe said,
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1055
"but I'm not inclined to agree with you. Let me walk with you part- way. You must explain how it is possible to think as you do. Which way are you going now? "
"I must get home," Lindner answered.
'Would your wife mind very much if I walked home with you? When we get back down to town we can take a taxi. I have plenty of
. . time.
"My son will be coming home from school," Lindner said with de- fensive dignity. "Mealtimes are on a strict schedule with us, which is why I must be home on time. My wife died suddenly, some years ago," he added, correcting Agathe's mistaken assumption, and with a glance at his watch he said with netvous impatience: "I must hurry! "
"Then you must explain it to me some other time. It is important to me! " Agathe insisted with feeling. "Ifyou won't come to see us, I shall look you up. "
Lindner caught his breath, but nothing came of it. Finally, he said: "But as a lady you can't come calling on a man! "
"Oh, yes I can! " Agathe assured him. "I shall simply arrive one day, you'll see. Though I can't say when. There is no harm in it! "
With this, she said good-bye and took a path diverging from his.
"You have no willpower! " she said under her breath, trying to imi- tate Lindner, but the word "willpower" tasted fresh and cool in her mouth. It had overtones of pride, toughness, and confidence; her heart beat higher; the man had done her good.
THE GENERAL MEANWHILE TAKES ULRICH AND CLARISSE TO THE MADHOUSE
While Ulrich was alone at home, the War Ministry telephoned to ask whether His Excellency the Chief of the Department for Military, Educational, and Cultural Affairs could see him privately in half an
1056 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
hour, and thirty-five minutes later General Stumm von Bordwehr's official carriage came dashing up the little drive.
"A fine kettle of fish! " the General cried out to his friend, who instantly noticed that this time the orderly with the intellectual bread was absent. The General was in full dress, decorations and all. "A fine mess you've got me into! " he reiterated. "There's a plenary ses- sion at your cousin's this evening. I haven't even had a chance to see my chief about it. And now suddenly the bombshell bursts-we have to be at the madhouse within an hour! "
"But why? " Ulrich asked, not unnaturally. "Usually that sort of thing is arranged ahead of time! "
"Don't ask so many questions! " the General implored him. "Just go and telephone your little friend or cousin or whatever she is, and tell her we're coming to call for her!
"
Ulrich telephoned the grocery store where Clarisse was in the habit ofdoing her local shopping, and while he was waiting for her to come to the phone he heard about the misfortune the General was bemoaning. To make the arrangements for Clarisse to visit Moos- brugger, as a favor to Ulrich, Stumm had turned to the Chief of the Medical Corps, who then got in touch with his celebrated colleague the head ofthe University Clinic, where Moosbruggerwas awaiting a top-level opinion on his psychiatric status. However, through a mis- understanding by both these gentlemen, the appointment for the date and time of Clarisse's visit had been made on the spot, as Stumm had been told with many apologies at the last minute, along with the error that he himselfhad been named as one ofthe visiting party that the famous psychiatrist was expecting with great pleasure.
"I feel quite ill! " he declared. This was a time-honored formula for his needing a schnapps. After he had tossed it off, he relaxed a little. "What's a madhouse to me! It's only because of you that I have to go! " he lamented. "Whatever will I say to that idiot professor when he asks me why I came along? "
At this moment a jubilant war whoop sounded at the other end of the line.
"Fine! " the General said fretfully. "But I also must absolutely talk to you about tonight. And I still have to report to my chief about it too. And he leaves the office at four! " He glanced at his watch and out of sheer hopelessness did not budge from his chair.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · z057
"Well, I'm ready," Ulrich said.
"Your lovely sister isn't coming? " Stumm asked in surprise.
"My sister is out. "
"Too bad. " The General sighed. "Your sister is the most remark-
able woman I have ever met. "
"I thought that was Diotima," Ulrich said.
"She's another," Stumm replied. "Diotima is admirable too. But
since she's been going in for sex education I feel like a schoolboy. I'm happy to look up to her-God knows, a soldier's trade is a simple and crude kind ofmanual labor, as I always say, but precisely in the realm ofsex it goes against one's honor as an officer to let oneselfbe treated as a novice! "
By now they were in the carriage and being driven off at a brisk trot.
"Is your young lady pretty, at least? " Stumm inquired suspiciously. "She's quite an original, as you'll see," Ulrich replied.
"Now, as regards tonight"-the General sighed-"something is
brewing. I expect something to happen. "
"That's what you say every time you come to see me," Ulrich pro-
tested, smiling.
"Maybe, but it's true just the same. And tonight you'll be present
at the encounter between your cousin and Frau Professor Drangsal. I hope you haven't forgotten everything I've told you about that. The Drangsal pest-that's what your cousin and I call her between our- selves-has been pestering your cousin for such a long time that she's got what she wanted: she's been haranguing everyone, and to- night will be the showdown between them. We were only waiting for Arnheim, so that he can form an opinion too. "
"Oh? " Ulrich had not seen Arnheim for a long time, and had not known that he was back.
"Of course. Just for a few days," Stumm said. "So we had to set it up-" He broke offsuddenly, bounding up from the swaying uphol- stery toward the driver's box with an agility no one would have ex- pected of him. "Idiot! " he barked into the ear of the orderly disguised as a civilian coachman who was driving the ministerial horses, and he rocked helplessly back and forth with the carriage as he clung to the back of the man he was insulting, shouting: "You're taking the long way round! " The soldier in civvies held his back stiff
1058 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
as a board, numb to the General's extramilitary use of his body to save himself from falling, turned his head exactly ninety degrees, so that he could not see either his general or his horses, and smartly reported to a vertical that ended in the air that the shortest route was blocked offby street repairs, but he would soon be back on it. "There you are--so I was right! " Stumm cried as he fell back, glossing over his futile outburst of impatience, partly for the orderly's benefit and partly for Ulrich's. "So now the fellow has to take a detour, when I'm supposed to report to my chief this very afternoon, and he wants to go home at four o'clock, by which time he should have briefed the Minister himself! . . . His Excellency the Minister has sent word to the Tuzzis to expect him in person tonight," he added in a low voice, just for Ulrich's ear.
"You don't say! " Ulrich showed himself properly impressed by this news.
''I've been telling you for a long time there's something in the air. "
Now Ulrich wanted to know what was in the air. "Come out with it, then," he demanded. "What does the Minister want? "
_"He doesn't know himself," Stumm answered genially. "His Ex- cellency has a feeling that the time has come. Old Leinsdorf also has a feeling that the time has come. The Chief of the General Staff like- wise has a feeling that the time has come. When a lot of people have such a feeling, there may be something in it. "
"But the time for what? " Ulrich persisted.
''Well, we don't need to know that yet," the General instructed him. "These are simply reliable indications! By the way," he asked abstractedly, or perhaps thoughtfully, "how many of us will there be today? "
"How would I know? " Ulrich asked in surprise.
"All I meant," Stumm explained, "is how many of us are going to the madhouse? Excuse me! Funny, isn't it, that kind of misunder- standing? There are days when there's too much coming at one from all sides. So: how many are coming? "
"I don't know who else will be coming-somewhere between three and six people. "
''What I meant," the General said earnestly, "was that if there are more than three of us, we'll have to get another cab-you under- stand, because I'm in uniform. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1059
"Oh, of course," Ulrich reassured him.
"I can't very well drive in a sardine can. "
"Of course not. But tell me, what's this about reliable indica-
tions? "
"But will we be able to get a cab out there? " Stumm worried. "It's
so far out you can hear the animals snoring. "
'W e'll pick one up on the way," Ulrich said firmly. "Now will you
please tell me how you have reliable indications that it's time for something to happen? "
"There's nothing to tell," Stumm replied. "When I say about something that that's the way it is and it can't be otherwise, what I'm really saying is that I can't explain it! At most one might add that this Drangsal is one of those pacifists, probably because Feuermaul, who's her protege, writes poems about 'Man is good. ' Lots of people believe that sort of thing now. ''
Ulrich was not convinced. "Didn't you tell me the opposite just a little while ago? That they're now all in favor of taking action, taking a strong line, and all that? "
"True too," the C'. eneral granted. "And influential circles are back- ing Drangsal; she has a great knack for that sort of thing. They expect the patriotic campaign to come up with a humanitarian action. "
"Really? " Ulrich said.
"You know, you really don't seem to care about anything anymore! The rest of us are worried. Let me remind you, for instance, that the fratricidal Austro-German war of 1866 only happened because all the Germans in the Frankfurt Parliament declared themselves to be brothers. Not,ofcourse,thatI'msuggestingthattheWarMinisteror the Chief of the General Staff might be worrying along those lines; that would be nonsense. But one thing does lead to another. That's how it is! See what I mean? "
It was not clear, but it made sense. And the General went on to make a very wise observation:
"Look, you're always wanting things to be clear and logical," he remonstrated with his seatmate. "And I do admire you for it, but you must for once try to think in historical terms. How can those directly involved in what's happening know beforehand whether it will tum out to be a great event? All they can do is pretend to themselves that it is! Ifl may indulge in a paradox, I'd say that the history ofthe world
1060 · THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
is written before it happens; it always starts off as a kind of gossip. So that people who have the energy to act are faced with a very serious problem. "
"You have a point," Ulrich said appreciatively. "But now tell me all about it. "
Although the General wanted to expand on it, there was so much on his mind in these moments, when the horse's hooves had begun to hit softer ground, that he was suddenly seized by other anxieties.
"Here I am, decked out like a Christmas tree in case the Minister calls for me," he cried, underlining it by pointing to his light-blue tunic and the medals hanging from it. "Don't you think it could lead to awkward incidents if I appear like this, in full dress, in front of loonies? What do I do, for instance, if one of them decides to insult the Emperor's uniform? I can hardly draw my sword, but it would be really dangerous for me not to say anything, either! "
Ulrich calmed him down by pointing out that he would be likely to wear a doctor's white coat over his uniform. But before Stumm had time to declare himselffully satisfied with this solution they met Cla- risse, impatiently coming to meet them in a smart summer dress, es- corted by Siegmund. She told Ulrich that Walter and Meingast had refused to join them. And after they had managed to find a second carriage, the General was pleased to say to Clarisse: "As you were coming down the road toward us, my dear young lady, you looked positively like an angel! "
But by the time he left the carriage at the hospital gate, Stumm von Bordwehr appeared rather flushed and ill at ease.
33
THE LUNATICS GREET CLARISSE
Clarisse was twisting her gloves in her hands, looking up at the win- dows, and fidgeting constantly while Ulrich paid for the cab. Stumm von Bordwehr protested Ulrich's doing this, and the cabbie sat on his box with a flattered smile as the two gentlemen kept each other back. Siegmund brushed specks off his coat with his fingertips, as usual, or stared into space.
In a low voice, the General said to Ulrich: "There's something odd about your lady friend. She lectured me the whole way about what will is. I didn't understand a word! "
"That's the way she is," Ulrich said.
"Pretty, though," the General whispered. "Like a fourteen-year- old ballerina. But why does she say that we came here in order to follow our 'hallucination'? The world is 'too free of hallucinations,' she says. D'you know anything about that? It was so distressing, I simply couldn't think of a word to say. "
The General was obviously holding up the departure of the cab only because he wanted to ask these questions, but before Ulrich could answer he was relieved of the responsibility by an emissary who welcomed the visitors in the name of the director of the clinic, and apologizing to the General for having to keep them waiting be- cause ofsome urgent business, he led the company upstairs to a wait- ing room. Clarisse took in every inch of the staircase and the corridors with her eyes, and even in the little waiting room, with its chairs upholstered in threadbare green velvet so reminiscent of an old-fashioned first-class waiting room in a railway station, her gaze roved about slowly almost the whole time. There the four of them sat, after the emissary had left, and found nothing to say until Ulrich, to break the silence, teased Clarisse by asking her whether the thought of meeting Moosbrugger face-to-face wasn't making her blood run cold.
1061
1062 • THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
"Bah! " Clarisse said. "He's only known ersatz women; it had to come to this. "
The General had come up with a face-saving idea, something hav- ing belatedly occurred to him: "The will is now very up-to-date," he said. 'W e're very much concerned with this problem in our patriotic action too! "
Clarisse gave him a smile and stretched her arms to ease the ten- sion in them. "Having to wait like this, one can feel what's coming in one's arms and legs, as ifone were looking through a telescope," she replied.
Stumm von Bordwehr gave it some thought, careful not to put a foot wrong again. "That's true! " he said. "It may have something to do with the current cult of exercise and bodybuilding. We're con- cerned with that also. "
At this point the Medical Director swept in with his cavalcade of assistants and nurses and a gracious word for everyone, especially Stumm; mumbled about something pressing, which would, regretta- bly, prevent him from taking them around himself, as he had in- tended; and introduced Dr. Friedenthal, who would take good care of them in his stead.
Dr. Friedenthal was a tall, slender man with a somewhat effemi- nate body and a thick mop of hair, who smiled at them, as he was introduced, like an acrobat climbing a ladder for a death-defying per- formance. When the director had gone, the white lab coats were brought in. 'W e don't want to get the patients excited," Dr. Frieden- thal explained.
As Clarisse slipped into hers she experienced a strange surge of power. She stood there like a little doctor. She felt very much a man, and very white.
The General looked around for a mirror. It was hard to find a lab coat to fit his idiosyncratic proportion of girth to height; when they finally managed to get him into something that covered him com- pletely, he looked like a child in an adult's nightshirt. "Don't you think I should take my spurs off? " he asked Dr. Friedenthal.
"Army doctors wear spurs too," Ulrich pointed out.
Stumm made one last feeble and laborious effort to see what he looked like from behind, where the medical coverall was caught up
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 o63
in heavy folds above his spurs. Then they set out. Dr. Friedenthal enjoined them to keep calm no matter what they might see.
"So far so good! " Stumm whispered to his friend. "But I'm not really interested in any of this. Could use the time much better to talk with you about tonight's meeting. Now look, you said you wanted me to tell you frankly what's going on. It's quite simple: the whole world is arming. The Russians have a brand-new field artillery. Are you listening? The French are using their two-year conscription law to build up an enormous army. The Italians . . . "
They had descended the same old-fashioned princely staircase they had climbed before and, after somehow turning off the main corridor, found themselves in a maze of small rooms and twisting passages with whitewashed beams protruding from the ceiling. These were mostly utility rooms and offices, cramped and dreary be- cause of a shortage of space in the ancient building. Sinister figures, only some of whom wore institutional uniforms, populated them. One door bore the inscription "Reception"; another, "Men. " The General's talk dried up. He had a premonition that things could hap- pen at any moment, requiring by their unprecedented nature great presence of mind. He could not help wondering what he would do if an irresistible need forced him to leave the group and he were to stumble, alone and without an expert guide in a place where all men are equal, upon a madman.
Clarisse, on the other hand, was walking a step ahead of Dr. Frie- denthai. His having said that they had to wear these white coats so as not to alarm the patients buoyed her up like a life vest on the current of her impressions. She was mulling over some of her pet ideas.
When she looked up, a man was standing beside her. She was em- barrassed, not knowing how long he had been watching her. As her glance, still dark with agitation, met his, she saw that he was looking at her with unconcealed sympathy, manifestly hoping to inspire her with wholehearted confidence. The man was tall and lean and wore dark clothes, and a short blond beard covered his cheeks and chin. Beneath his mustache one could easily make out full, soft lips, which were in remarkably youthful contrast to the many gray hairs already scattered among the blond ones, as if age had forgotten them in the growth of hair. It was altogether not an easy face to read. The first impression led one to think of a secondary-school teacher; the sever- ity in this face was not carved in hardwood but rather resembled something soft that had hardened under petty daily frustrations. But if one started with this softness, on which the manly beard seemed to have been planted in order to adjust it to a system with which the wearer concurred, then one realized that this originally rather ef- feminate face showed hard, almost ascetic details, clearly the work of a relentlessly active will upon the soft basic material.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1049
Agathe did not know what to make of this face, which left her sus- pended between attraction and repulsion; all she understood was that this man wanted to help her.
"Life offers us just as much opportunity to strengthen the will as to weaken it," the stranger said, wiping his glasses, which had been misted over, in order to see her better. "One should never run away from problems, but try to master them! " Agathe stared at him in sur- prise. He had obviously been watching her for quite some time, be- cause his words were emerging from the middle of some interior monologue. Startled by his own voice, he raised his hat, his manners belatedly catching up with this essential gesture of courtesy, then quickly regained his composure and went straight on: "Do forgive my asking whether I may be of some help," he said. "It seems to me that it is truly easier to speak of one's pain to a stranger, even con- cerning a grave shock to the self, such as I believe I am witnessing here? "
Evidently it was not without effort that the stranger spoke to her; apparently he had felt called upon to do so out of duty, as an act of charity; and now that he found himself walking beside this beautiful woman, he was literally struggling for words. For Agathe had simply stood up and begun slowly to walk with him away from the grave and out from under the trees into the open space at the edge ofthe hills, neither of them deciding whether they wanted to choose one of the paths leading downward, or which one. Instead, they walked along the hilltop for quite a distance, talking, then turned back, and then turned back to walk in the original direction once more; neither of them knew where the other had meant to go originally, and neither wanted to interfere with the other's plans.
'Won't you tell me why you were crying? " the stranger persisted, in the mild tones of a physician asking where it hurts.
Agathe shook her head. "It wouldn't be easy to explain," she said, and suddenly asked him: "But tell me something else: What makes you so sure you can help me without knowing me? I'd be inclined to think that one can't help anyone! " .
Her companion did not answer right away. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but seemed to force himself to hold back. Fi- nally, he said: "One can probably only help someone who is suffering from something one has experienced oneself. "
1050 • THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
He fell silent. Agathe laughed at the thought that this man could suppose himself to have been through what she was suffering, which would have been repellent to him had he known what it was. But her companion seemed not to hear this laugh, or to regard it as a rude- ness born of nerves. After a pause, he said calmly: "Of course, I don't mean that anyone has a right to imagine that he can tell anyone else what to do. But you see, fear in a catastrophe is infectious-and suc- cessful escape is also infectious! I mean just having escaped as from a fire, when everyone has lost his head and run into the flames: what an immense help when a single person stands outside, waving, does nothing but wave and shout incomprehensibly that there is a way out. . . . "
Agathe nearly laughed again at the horrible ideas this kindly man harbored; but just because they seemed so out of character, they molded his wax-soft face almost uncannily.
"You talk like a fireman! " she retorted, deliberately adopting the teasing, frivolous tone ofhigh society to hide her curiosity. "Still, you must have formed some notion of the kind of catastrophe I'm in- volved in, surely? '' Unintentionally, the seriousness of her scorn showed through, for the simple idea that this man presumed to offer her help aroused her indignation by the equally simple gratitud~ that welled up in her. The stranger looked at her in astonishment/ then collected himself and said almost in rebuke: "You are probaMy still too young to know how simple life is. I t only becomes hopelessly con- fused when one is thinking of oneself; but as soon as one stops think- ing of oneself and asks oneself how to help someone else, it's quite simple! "
Agathe thought it over in silence. And whether it was her silence or the inviting distance into which his words took wing, the stranger went on, without looking at her:
"It's a modem superstition to overestimate the personal. There's so much talk today about cultivating one's personality, living one's life to the full, and affirming life. But all this fuzzy and ambiguous v e r b i a g e o n l y b e t r a y s t h e u s e r ' s n e e d t o b e f o g t h e r e a l m e a n i n g o f his protest. What, exactly, is to be affirmed? Anything and everything, higgledy-piggledy? Evolution is always associated with resistance, an American thinker has said. We cannot develop one side ofour nature without stunting another. Then what's to be lived to the full? The
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 0 5 1
mind or the instincts? Every passing whim or one's character? Self- ishness or love? If our higher nature is to fulfill itself, the lower must learn renunciation and obedience! "
Agathe was considering why it should be simpler to take care of others than of oneself. She was one of those completely nonegotisti- cal characters who may always be thinking about themselves, but not for their own benefit, which differs far more from the usual selfish- ness, which is always on the lookout for its own advantage, than does the complacent unselfishness ofthose who are always worrying about their fellow human beings. So what her companion was saying was at bottom foreign to her nature, and yet it somehow moved her, and the words he seized hold of so forcefully sailed alarmingly before her eyes as though their meaning were more to be seen in the air than heard. Also, they happened to be walking along a ridge that gave Agathe a marvelous view of the deep curving valley below, a position that evidently gave her companion the sense of being in a pulpit or on a lecture platform. She stopped and with her hat, which all this time she had been swinging carelessly in her hand, she drew a line through the stranger's argument: "So you have formed your own pic- ture of me," she said. "I can see it shining through your words, and it isn't flattering. "
The tall gentleman seemed dismayed, for he hadn't meant to hurt her, and Agathe looked at him with a friendly laugh. ''You seem to be confusing me with the cause of the liberated personality, and a rather neurotic and unpleasant personality at that! " she maintained.
"I was only speaking of the underlying principle of the personal life," he said apologetically. "I must confess that the situation in which I found you suggested to me that you might want some helpful advice. The underlying principle of life is so widely misunderstood nowadays. Our entire modern neurosis, with all its excesses, arises solely from a flabby inner state in which the will is lacking, for with- out a special effort ofwill no one can achieve the integrity and stabil- ity that lifts a person above the obscure confusion of the organism! "
Here again were two words, "integrity" and "stability," that echoed her old longings and self-accusations. "Do tell me what you mean by that," she asked him. "Surely there can only really be a will when one has a goal? "
"What I mean doesn't matter," was the answer she received, in a
1052 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
tone both mild and brusque. "Don't all the great ancient scriptures of mankind tell us with utmost clarity what to do and not to do? "
Agathe was disconcerted.
"To set up fundamental ideals of life," her companion explained, "requires such a penetrating knowledge of life and of people, and such a heroic mastery of the passions and egotism, as has been granted to only very few individuals in the course of thousands of years. And these teachers of mankind have throughout the ages al- ways taught the same truths. "
Agathe instinctively resisted, as would anyone who considers her young flesh and blood better than the bones of dead sages.
"But precepts formulated thousands of years ago can't possibly apply to conditions today! " she cried.
"Those precepts are not nearly as foreign as is claimed by skeptics, who are out of touch with living experience and self-knowledge," her chance companion answered, with bitter satisfaction. "Life's deepest truths are not arrived at in debate, as Plato already said. Man hears them as the living meaning and fulfillment of his self. Believe me, what makes the human being truly free, and what takes away his freedom, what gives him true bliss and what destroys it, isn't subject to 'progress'-it is something every genuinely alive person knows perfectly well in his own heart, if he will just listen to it! "
Agathe liked the expression "living meaning," but then something suddenly occurred to her: "Are you religious? " she asked him. She looked at her companion with curiosity. He gave no answer.
''You're not a priest, by any chance . . . ? " she continued, but was reassured by his beard, for the rest of his appearance suddenly sug- gested that surprising possibility. It must be said to her credit that she would not have been more astounded had he casually referred to "our sublime ruler, the divine Augustus. " She knew that religion plays a great role in politics, but one is so used to not taking ideas bandied about in public life seriously that to expect the "Christian" parties to be composed of true believers is the same kind of exagger- ation as expecting every postal clerk to be a philatelist.
After a lengthy, somewhat wavering pause, the stranger replied: "I would prefer not to answer your question; you are too remote from all that. "
But Agathe was seized with a lively curiosity.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1053
''I'd like to know who you are! " she demanded to be told, and this was, after all, a feminine privilege that was not to be denied. He showed the same, slightly comical hesitation as before, when he had belatedly raised his hat to her. His arm seemed to twitch as ifhe were thinking of thus saluting her again, but then something in him stiff- ened, as though one army of thoughts had battled another and won, instead of a trifling gesture being playfully performed.
"My name is Lindner, and I teach at the Franz Ferdinand Gymna- sium," he said, adding after a moment's thought: "I also lecture at the University. "
"Then you might know my brother? " Agathe asked in relief, adding Ulrich's name. "He read a paper there recently, if I'm not mistaken, at the Pedagogical Society, on Mathematics and the Humanities, or something like that. "
"Only by name. We've never met. Oh yes, I did attend that lec- ture," Lindner admitted. He seemed to say it with a certain reserve, but Agathe's attention was caught by his next question:
"Your father must have been the distinguished jurist? "
"Yes. He died recently, and I'm now staying with my brother," Agathe said freely. 'Won't you come and see us? "
''I'm afraid I have no time for social calls," Lindner replied brusquely, his eyes cast down in uncertainty.
"In that case I hope you won't have any objections if I come to see you sometime," Agathe said, paying no attention to his reluctance. "I do need your advice. " And since he had been calling her "Fraulein," she said: ''I'm married; Hagauer is my name. "
"Then you're the wife of the noted Professor of Education Hagauer . . . ! " Lindner cried. He had begun the sentence on a note of high enthusiasm, but it wavered and became hesitant. For Hagauer was two things: he was in education and he was a progres- sive in education. Lindner was actually opposed to his ideas, but how bracing it was to recognize, through the uncertain mists of a female psyche, which has just proposed the impossible notion of inviting herself to a man's house, the familiar form of an enemy; it was the drop from the second to the first of these sentiments that was re- flected in his change of tone.
Agathe had noticed it. She did not know whether to tell Lindner of the situation between her husband and herself. If she told him, it
1054 ·THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
might put an immediate end to everything between herself and this new friend, that much was clear. And she would have been sony; precisely because there was so much about Lindner that made her laugh at him, he also made her feel that she could trust him. The impression, borne out by his appearance, that this man seemed to want nothing for himself oddly moved her to be forthright with him: he quieted all longing, and that made frankness quite natural.
''I'm about to get a divorce," she finally admitted.
A silence followed. Lindner now had a downcast look. It put Agathe out of all patience with him. Finally, Undner said with an offended smile: "I thought it must be something like that when I first caught sight ofyou! "
"Does that mean you're opposed to divorce too? " Agathe cried, giving free rein to her irritation with him. "Of course, you're bound to be against it. But it really does put you rather behind the times! "
"At least I can't regard it as matter-of-factly as you do. " Lindner defended himself pensively, took off his glasses, polished them, put them on again, and contemplated Agathe. "It seemed to me you have too little willpower," he stated.
"Willpower? My will, for what it's worth, is to get a divorce! " Agathe cried, knowing it was not a very sensible answer.
"Please don't misunderstand me," Lindner gently corrected her. "I am of course willing to believe that you have good reasons. It's only that I see things in a different light. The free and easy morals prevailing nowadays amount, in effect, to nothing more than a sign that the individual is chained hand and foot to his own ego and inca- pable ofliving and acting from any wider perspective. Our esteemed poets," he added jealously, with an attempt at humor about Agathe's perfeiVid pilgrimage to the poet's grave, an attempt that only turned sour on his lips, "who play up to the sentiments ofyoung ladies, and are therefore overestimated by them, have a far easier role to play than I, when I tell you that marriage is an institution of responsibility and the mastery of the human being over its passions! Before anyone dissociates himself from the external safeguards that mankind has wisely set up against its own undependability, he should recognize that isolation from and disobedience to the greater whole do far more harm than the physical disappointments we so fear! "
"That sounds like a military code for archangels," Agathe said,
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1055
"but I'm not inclined to agree with you. Let me walk with you part- way. You must explain how it is possible to think as you do. Which way are you going now? "
"I must get home," Lindner answered.
'Would your wife mind very much if I walked home with you? When we get back down to town we can take a taxi. I have plenty of
. . time.
"My son will be coming home from school," Lindner said with de- fensive dignity. "Mealtimes are on a strict schedule with us, which is why I must be home on time. My wife died suddenly, some years ago," he added, correcting Agathe's mistaken assumption, and with a glance at his watch he said with netvous impatience: "I must hurry! "
"Then you must explain it to me some other time. It is important to me! " Agathe insisted with feeling. "Ifyou won't come to see us, I shall look you up. "
Lindner caught his breath, but nothing came of it. Finally, he said: "But as a lady you can't come calling on a man! "
"Oh, yes I can! " Agathe assured him. "I shall simply arrive one day, you'll see. Though I can't say when. There is no harm in it! "
With this, she said good-bye and took a path diverging from his.
"You have no willpower! " she said under her breath, trying to imi- tate Lindner, but the word "willpower" tasted fresh and cool in her mouth. It had overtones of pride, toughness, and confidence; her heart beat higher; the man had done her good.
THE GENERAL MEANWHILE TAKES ULRICH AND CLARISSE TO THE MADHOUSE
While Ulrich was alone at home, the War Ministry telephoned to ask whether His Excellency the Chief of the Department for Military, Educational, and Cultural Affairs could see him privately in half an
1056 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
hour, and thirty-five minutes later General Stumm von Bordwehr's official carriage came dashing up the little drive.
"A fine kettle of fish! " the General cried out to his friend, who instantly noticed that this time the orderly with the intellectual bread was absent. The General was in full dress, decorations and all. "A fine mess you've got me into! " he reiterated. "There's a plenary ses- sion at your cousin's this evening. I haven't even had a chance to see my chief about it. And now suddenly the bombshell bursts-we have to be at the madhouse within an hour! "
"But why? " Ulrich asked, not unnaturally. "Usually that sort of thing is arranged ahead of time! "
"Don't ask so many questions! " the General implored him. "Just go and telephone your little friend or cousin or whatever she is, and tell her we're coming to call for her!
"
Ulrich telephoned the grocery store where Clarisse was in the habit ofdoing her local shopping, and while he was waiting for her to come to the phone he heard about the misfortune the General was bemoaning. To make the arrangements for Clarisse to visit Moos- brugger, as a favor to Ulrich, Stumm had turned to the Chief of the Medical Corps, who then got in touch with his celebrated colleague the head ofthe University Clinic, where Moosbruggerwas awaiting a top-level opinion on his psychiatric status. However, through a mis- understanding by both these gentlemen, the appointment for the date and time of Clarisse's visit had been made on the spot, as Stumm had been told with many apologies at the last minute, along with the error that he himselfhad been named as one ofthe visiting party that the famous psychiatrist was expecting with great pleasure.
"I feel quite ill! " he declared. This was a time-honored formula for his needing a schnapps. After he had tossed it off, he relaxed a little. "What's a madhouse to me! It's only because of you that I have to go! " he lamented. "Whatever will I say to that idiot professor when he asks me why I came along? "
At this moment a jubilant war whoop sounded at the other end of the line.
"Fine! " the General said fretfully. "But I also must absolutely talk to you about tonight. And I still have to report to my chief about it too. And he leaves the office at four! " He glanced at his watch and out of sheer hopelessness did not budge from his chair.
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · z057
"Well, I'm ready," Ulrich said.
"Your lovely sister isn't coming? " Stumm asked in surprise.
"My sister is out. "
"Too bad. " The General sighed. "Your sister is the most remark-
able woman I have ever met. "
"I thought that was Diotima," Ulrich said.
"She's another," Stumm replied. "Diotima is admirable too. But
since she's been going in for sex education I feel like a schoolboy. I'm happy to look up to her-God knows, a soldier's trade is a simple and crude kind ofmanual labor, as I always say, but precisely in the realm ofsex it goes against one's honor as an officer to let oneselfbe treated as a novice! "
By now they were in the carriage and being driven off at a brisk trot.
"Is your young lady pretty, at least? " Stumm inquired suspiciously. "She's quite an original, as you'll see," Ulrich replied.
"Now, as regards tonight"-the General sighed-"something is
brewing. I expect something to happen. "
"That's what you say every time you come to see me," Ulrich pro-
tested, smiling.
"Maybe, but it's true just the same. And tonight you'll be present
at the encounter between your cousin and Frau Professor Drangsal. I hope you haven't forgotten everything I've told you about that. The Drangsal pest-that's what your cousin and I call her between our- selves-has been pestering your cousin for such a long time that she's got what she wanted: she's been haranguing everyone, and to- night will be the showdown between them. We were only waiting for Arnheim, so that he can form an opinion too. "
"Oh? " Ulrich had not seen Arnheim for a long time, and had not known that he was back.
"Of course. Just for a few days," Stumm said. "So we had to set it up-" He broke offsuddenly, bounding up from the swaying uphol- stery toward the driver's box with an agility no one would have ex- pected of him. "Idiot! " he barked into the ear of the orderly disguised as a civilian coachman who was driving the ministerial horses, and he rocked helplessly back and forth with the carriage as he clung to the back of the man he was insulting, shouting: "You're taking the long way round! " The soldier in civvies held his back stiff
1058 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
as a board, numb to the General's extramilitary use of his body to save himself from falling, turned his head exactly ninety degrees, so that he could not see either his general or his horses, and smartly reported to a vertical that ended in the air that the shortest route was blocked offby street repairs, but he would soon be back on it. "There you are--so I was right! " Stumm cried as he fell back, glossing over his futile outburst of impatience, partly for the orderly's benefit and partly for Ulrich's. "So now the fellow has to take a detour, when I'm supposed to report to my chief this very afternoon, and he wants to go home at four o'clock, by which time he should have briefed the Minister himself! . . . His Excellency the Minister has sent word to the Tuzzis to expect him in person tonight," he added in a low voice, just for Ulrich's ear.
"You don't say! " Ulrich showed himself properly impressed by this news.
''I've been telling you for a long time there's something in the air. "
Now Ulrich wanted to know what was in the air. "Come out with it, then," he demanded. "What does the Minister want? "
_"He doesn't know himself," Stumm answered genially. "His Ex- cellency has a feeling that the time has come. Old Leinsdorf also has a feeling that the time has come. The Chief of the General Staff like- wise has a feeling that the time has come. When a lot of people have such a feeling, there may be something in it. "
"But the time for what? " Ulrich persisted.
''Well, we don't need to know that yet," the General instructed him. "These are simply reliable indications! By the way," he asked abstractedly, or perhaps thoughtfully, "how many of us will there be today? "
"How would I know? " Ulrich asked in surprise.
"All I meant," Stumm explained, "is how many of us are going to the madhouse? Excuse me! Funny, isn't it, that kind of misunder- standing? There are days when there's too much coming at one from all sides. So: how many are coming? "
"I don't know who else will be coming-somewhere between three and six people. "
''What I meant," the General said earnestly, "was that if there are more than three of us, we'll have to get another cab-you under- stand, because I'm in uniform. "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1059
"Oh, of course," Ulrich reassured him.
"I can't very well drive in a sardine can. "
"Of course not. But tell me, what's this about reliable indica-
tions? "
"But will we be able to get a cab out there? " Stumm worried. "It's
so far out you can hear the animals snoring. "
'W e'll pick one up on the way," Ulrich said firmly. "Now will you
please tell me how you have reliable indications that it's time for something to happen? "
"There's nothing to tell," Stumm replied. "When I say about something that that's the way it is and it can't be otherwise, what I'm really saying is that I can't explain it! At most one might add that this Drangsal is one of those pacifists, probably because Feuermaul, who's her protege, writes poems about 'Man is good. ' Lots of people believe that sort of thing now. ''
Ulrich was not convinced. "Didn't you tell me the opposite just a little while ago? That they're now all in favor of taking action, taking a strong line, and all that? "
"True too," the C'. eneral granted. "And influential circles are back- ing Drangsal; she has a great knack for that sort of thing. They expect the patriotic campaign to come up with a humanitarian action. "
"Really? " Ulrich said.
"You know, you really don't seem to care about anything anymore! The rest of us are worried. Let me remind you, for instance, that the fratricidal Austro-German war of 1866 only happened because all the Germans in the Frankfurt Parliament declared themselves to be brothers. Not,ofcourse,thatI'msuggestingthattheWarMinisteror the Chief of the General Staff might be worrying along those lines; that would be nonsense. But one thing does lead to another. That's how it is! See what I mean? "
It was not clear, but it made sense. And the General went on to make a very wise observation:
"Look, you're always wanting things to be clear and logical," he remonstrated with his seatmate. "And I do admire you for it, but you must for once try to think in historical terms. How can those directly involved in what's happening know beforehand whether it will tum out to be a great event? All they can do is pretend to themselves that it is! Ifl may indulge in a paradox, I'd say that the history ofthe world
1060 · THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES
is written before it happens; it always starts off as a kind of gossip. So that people who have the energy to act are faced with a very serious problem. "
"You have a point," Ulrich said appreciatively. "But now tell me all about it. "
Although the General wanted to expand on it, there was so much on his mind in these moments, when the horse's hooves had begun to hit softer ground, that he was suddenly seized by other anxieties.
"Here I am, decked out like a Christmas tree in case the Minister calls for me," he cried, underlining it by pointing to his light-blue tunic and the medals hanging from it. "Don't you think it could lead to awkward incidents if I appear like this, in full dress, in front of loonies? What do I do, for instance, if one of them decides to insult the Emperor's uniform? I can hardly draw my sword, but it would be really dangerous for me not to say anything, either! "
Ulrich calmed him down by pointing out that he would be likely to wear a doctor's white coat over his uniform. But before Stumm had time to declare himselffully satisfied with this solution they met Cla- risse, impatiently coming to meet them in a smart summer dress, es- corted by Siegmund. She told Ulrich that Walter and Meingast had refused to join them. And after they had managed to find a second carriage, the General was pleased to say to Clarisse: "As you were coming down the road toward us, my dear young lady, you looked positively like an angel! "
But by the time he left the carriage at the hospital gate, Stumm von Bordwehr appeared rather flushed and ill at ease.
33
THE LUNATICS GREET CLARISSE
Clarisse was twisting her gloves in her hands, looking up at the win- dows, and fidgeting constantly while Ulrich paid for the cab. Stumm von Bordwehr protested Ulrich's doing this, and the cabbie sat on his box with a flattered smile as the two gentlemen kept each other back. Siegmund brushed specks off his coat with his fingertips, as usual, or stared into space.
In a low voice, the General said to Ulrich: "There's something odd about your lady friend. She lectured me the whole way about what will is. I didn't understand a word! "
"That's the way she is," Ulrich said.
"Pretty, though," the General whispered. "Like a fourteen-year- old ballerina. But why does she say that we came here in order to follow our 'hallucination'? The world is 'too free of hallucinations,' she says. D'you know anything about that? It was so distressing, I simply couldn't think of a word to say. "
The General was obviously holding up the departure of the cab only because he wanted to ask these questions, but before Ulrich could answer he was relieved of the responsibility by an emissary who welcomed the visitors in the name of the director of the clinic, and apologizing to the General for having to keep them waiting be- cause ofsome urgent business, he led the company upstairs to a wait- ing room. Clarisse took in every inch of the staircase and the corridors with her eyes, and even in the little waiting room, with its chairs upholstered in threadbare green velvet so reminiscent of an old-fashioned first-class waiting room in a railway station, her gaze roved about slowly almost the whole time. There the four of them sat, after the emissary had left, and found nothing to say until Ulrich, to break the silence, teased Clarisse by asking her whether the thought of meeting Moosbrugger face-to-face wasn't making her blood run cold.
1061
1062 • THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
"Bah! " Clarisse said. "He's only known ersatz women; it had to come to this. "
The General had come up with a face-saving idea, something hav- ing belatedly occurred to him: "The will is now very up-to-date," he said. 'W e're very much concerned with this problem in our patriotic action too! "
Clarisse gave him a smile and stretched her arms to ease the ten- sion in them. "Having to wait like this, one can feel what's coming in one's arms and legs, as ifone were looking through a telescope," she replied.
Stumm von Bordwehr gave it some thought, careful not to put a foot wrong again. "That's true! " he said. "It may have something to do with the current cult of exercise and bodybuilding. We're con- cerned with that also. "
At this point the Medical Director swept in with his cavalcade of assistants and nurses and a gracious word for everyone, especially Stumm; mumbled about something pressing, which would, regretta- bly, prevent him from taking them around himself, as he had in- tended; and introduced Dr. Friedenthal, who would take good care of them in his stead.
Dr. Friedenthal was a tall, slender man with a somewhat effemi- nate body and a thick mop of hair, who smiled at them, as he was introduced, like an acrobat climbing a ladder for a death-defying per- formance. When the director had gone, the white lab coats were brought in. 'W e don't want to get the patients excited," Dr. Frieden- thal explained.
As Clarisse slipped into hers she experienced a strange surge of power. She stood there like a little doctor. She felt very much a man, and very white.
The General looked around for a mirror. It was hard to find a lab coat to fit his idiosyncratic proportion of girth to height; when they finally managed to get him into something that covered him com- pletely, he looked like a child in an adult's nightshirt. "Don't you think I should take my spurs off? " he asked Dr. Friedenthal.
"Army doctors wear spurs too," Ulrich pointed out.
Stumm made one last feeble and laborious effort to see what he looked like from behind, where the medical coverall was caught up
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 o63
in heavy folds above his spurs. Then they set out. Dr. Friedenthal enjoined them to keep calm no matter what they might see.
"So far so good! " Stumm whispered to his friend. "But I'm not really interested in any of this. Could use the time much better to talk with you about tonight's meeting. Now look, you said you wanted me to tell you frankly what's going on. It's quite simple: the whole world is arming. The Russians have a brand-new field artillery. Are you listening? The French are using their two-year conscription law to build up an enormous army. The Italians . . . "
They had descended the same old-fashioned princely staircase they had climbed before and, after somehow turning off the main corridor, found themselves in a maze of small rooms and twisting passages with whitewashed beams protruding from the ceiling. These were mostly utility rooms and offices, cramped and dreary be- cause of a shortage of space in the ancient building. Sinister figures, only some of whom wore institutional uniforms, populated them. One door bore the inscription "Reception"; another, "Men. " The General's talk dried up. He had a premonition that things could hap- pen at any moment, requiring by their unprecedented nature great presence of mind. He could not help wondering what he would do if an irresistible need forced him to leave the group and he were to stumble, alone and without an expert guide in a place where all men are equal, upon a madman.
Clarisse, on the other hand, was walking a step ahead of Dr. Frie- denthai. His having said that they had to wear these white coats so as not to alarm the patients buoyed her up like a life vest on the current of her impressions. She was mulling over some of her pet ideas.
