present conditions was no better than to spend their lives like brigands in the
mountains.Youngpeopledidnotthinkwhattheysaid,paidnoheedtowhatthey
did,didnotcountthecostandwerecarelessintheirwork;theyatetheirbread
without stopping to think whence it came and talked, talked, talked, 'baying at
themoon'asPavleexpresseditinhisargumentswithhissons.
Thiswayofthinkingwithoutlimits,thisspeechwithoutconsideration,andthis
life without calculation and hostile to every calculation, drove Pavle, who had
worked all his life by and with calculation, to frenzy and desperation. He was
filled with fear whenever he heard or saw them; it seemed to him that they
imprudentlyandirresponsiblyhackedawayattheveryfoundationsoflife,atall
thatwasdearestandmostsacredtohim.Whenheaskedthemforanexplanation
whichwouldconvinceandreassurehimtheyreplieddisdainfullyandhaughtily
with vague and high sounding words; freedom, future, history, science, glory, greatness.Hisskincrawledatalltheseabstractwords.Thereforehelikedtosit
anddrinkcoffeewithLotte,withwhomhecouldtalkaboutbusinessandevents,
alwaysbasedonasureandadmittedcalculation,verydifferentfromthe'politics'
andthebig,dangerouswordsthatquestionedeverything,explainednothingand
affirmednothing.Duringtheconversationheoftentookouthispencilstub,not
thatoftwenty-fiveyearsbackbutonejustasshinyandalmostequallyinvisible,
and put all that was said to the infallible and irrefutable proof of figures. They often recalled in their talk some long ago happening, or some jest in which
nearly all the participants were now dead, and then Pavle, bowed with cares,
would go to his shop in the marketplace and Lotte remained alone with her
Worriesandheraccounts.
Lotte'spersonalspeculationswereinnobettershapethanthehotel'sbusiness.In
the first years after the occupation it had been enough to buy any share in any
enterpriseandonecouldbesurethatthemoneywaswellinvestedandtheonly
questionthatcouldarisewastheamountoftheprofit.Butatthattimethehotel
hadonlyjuststartedworkandLottehadneitherthereadymoneyatherdisposal
northecreditwhichshelaterenjoyed.Whenshehadachievedbothmoneyand
creditthestateofaffairsontheexchangeshadcompletelychanged.Oneofthe
mostseriousofthecycliccriseshadhittheAustro-HungarianMonarchyatthe
endofthenineteenthandthebeginningofthetwentiethcentury.Lotte'sstocks
and shares began to play like dust in a high wind. She would weep with rage
whenshereadthemostrecentquotationseachweekintheVienna Merkur. All
the profits of the hotel, which at that time was still doing good business, were
not enough to cover the losses caused by the general decline in values. At that
timetooshehadhadaseverenervousbreakdownwhichlastedafulltwoyears.
Shewasalmostmadwithpain.Shechatted
to people without hearing what they said or thinking what she herself was
saying.Shelookedthemfullinthefacebutdidnotseethembutthesmall-print
columns of the Merkur which were to bring her good or evil luck. Then she began to buy lottery tickets. Since everything was in any case only a game of
chance, she might as well do it properly. She had lottery tickets from every
country.Sheevensucceededingettingholdofaquartershareinaticketofthe
great Spanish Christmas Lottery whose first prize amounted to fifteen million
pesetas. She prayed God for a miracle and that her ticket should draw the first
prize.Butsheneverwonanything.
Sevenyearsbefore,Lotte'sbrother-in-lawZahlerhadgoneintopartnershipwith
a couple of wealthy men on pension and founded the 'Modern Milk Co-operative' in the town. Lotte provided three-fifths of the capital. Business on a
largescalewasenvisaged.Itwasreckonedthattheinitialsuccesses,whichcould
not fail to eventuate, would attract capital from outside the town and even
outside Bosnia. But just at the moment when the enterprise was in its critical
phase the annexation crisis took place. This destroyed every hope of attracting
investedinthembegantoflee.TheCo-operativewentintoliquidationaftertwo
years, with the total loss of all the invested capital. Lotte had to mortgage her best and safest shares, like those of the Sarajevo Brewery and the Solvaj Soda
FactoryatTuzla,tocoverthedeficit.
Parallelwiththesefinancialmisfortunesandalliedtothemwerefamilytroubles
and disappointments. It was true that one of Zahler's daughters, Irene, had
married unexpectedly well (Lotte had provided the dowry). But the elder
daughter,Mina,remained.Embitteredbythemarriageofheryoungersisterand
unfortunateinhersuitorsshehadbecomebeforehertimeavinegaryandsharp-
tongued old maid to whom life at home and work in the hotel seemed even
heavierandmoreunbearablethaninfacttheywere.Zahlerwhohadneverbeen
lively or quick-witted grew even more ponderous and indecisive and lived at
home like a dumb but good-natured guest from whom there was neither harm
nor profit. Zahler's wife, Deborah, though sickly and in advanced years, had
given birth to a son, but the boy was backward and rickety. He was now ten
yearsoldandstillcouldnotspeakclearlyorstandupright,butexpressedhimself
in vague sounds and crawled about the house on his hands and knees. But this
miserablecreaturewassopitiableandgoodandclungsodesperatelytohisAunt
Lotte, whom he loved far more than his mother, that Lotte, despite all her
worriesandduties,lookedafterhim,fedhim,dressedhimandsanghimtosleep.
With this cretin ever before her eyes, her heart contracted at the idea that
business was now so bad that there was not enough money to send him to the
famous doctors in Vienna or into some institution, and at the thought that the
days of miracles were past and that such creatures could not grow healthy by
God'swillorbyman'sgoodworksandprayers.
Lotte'sGaliciandependents,whomshehadeducatedorgiveninmarriageduring
the good years, also caused her no little worry and disappointment. Some
amongst them had founded families, extended their business and acquired
property. Lotte got regular news from them, letters filled with respect and
gratitude and regular reports of the progress of their families. But the
Apfelmaiers to whom Lotte had given a start in life, had educated or provided homesfor,didnothelpherortakeanyresponsibilityfornewrelativesbornand
growingupinpovertyinGaliciabut,oncesettledindistantcities,onlybothered
about themselves and their own childre
n. For them the greater part of their
successlayinforgettingTarnowandthecrampedandwretchedcircumstancesin
which they had grown up and from which they had had the luck to liberate
themselves,asquicklyandascompletelyaspossible;andLotteherselfwasno
longerabletosetasidemoneyasshehadoncedonetogivethatblackpovertyof
Tarnow its chance in life. She never went to sleep or woke now without the
thought that someone of hers in Tarnow was forever sunk in the slough of
hopeless poverty, condemned forever to ignorance and filth, in that shameful
povertywhichsheknewsowellandwhichshehadfoughtagainstallherlife.
Even amongst those whose lot she had already improved there was reason
enoughforcomplaintanddissatisfaction.Eventhebestamongthemhadturned
from the right path and made mistakes after their first successes and most
shining hopes. One niece, a gifted pianist, who by Lotte's help and
encouragement had completed her studies at the Vienna Conservatoire, had
poisonedherselfafewyearsearlieratthetimeofherfirstandbestsuccesses;no
oneknewwhy.
One of her nephews, Albert, Lotte's pride and the hope of the family, had
completed all his studies, both at secondary school and university, with
outstanding success and only because he was a Jew had not received his
diploma 'subauspiciisregis' orobtainedtheImperialsignetasLottehadsecretly
hoped. None the less, Lotte had imagined him at least as a leading lawyer in
ViennaorLwow,sincebeingaJewhecouldnotbecomeaseniorcivilservant
which
would best have accorded with her ambitions. In such dreams she reaped the
rewardforallhersacrificesforhiseducation.Buttheretooshehadhadtosuffer
a painful disillusionment. The young doctor of law went into journalism and
became a member of the Socialist Party, and of that extremist wing which
became notorious in the Vienna general strike of 1906. Lotte had to read with
herowneyesintheViennesenewspapersthat'duringthecleaningupinVienna
of subversive foreign elements, the well-known Jewish agitator Dr Albert
Apfelmaierhasbeenexpelled,afterfirstpurgingasentencepassedagainsthim
of twenty days' imprisonment'. That, in the language of the town, meant the
sameasifhehadbeena haiduk, abrigand.AfewmonthslaterLottereceiveda
letterfromherdearAlbertinwhichhetoldherthathewasemigratingtoBuenos
Aires.
Inthosedaysshecouldnotfindpeaceeveninherownroom.Withtheletterin
her hand she went to her sister and brother-in-law and desperately, senselessly,
flewintoapassionwithhersisterDeborahwhocouldonlyweep.Sheshouted
withrage:
'What is to become of us? I ask you, what is to become of us, when no one
knowshowtomakehiswayandstandupforhimself?Unlesstheyarepropped
uptheyallfall.Whatisgoingtohappentous?Weareaccursed,thatisallthere
istoit.'
'Gott, Gott, Gott,' wailed poor Deborah with tears flowing down her cheeks,
naturallyquiteunabletoanswerLotte'squestions.NordidLotteherselffindan
answer but clasped her hands and lifted her eyes to heaven, not weeping and
frightenedlikeDeborah,butfuriousanddespairing.
'HehasbecomeaSocialist!ASoc-ial-ist!Isn'titenoughthatweareJews,but
hemustbethataswell!OGreatandOnlyGod,howhaveIsinnedthatYoumust
punishusthus?ASocialist!'
SheweptforAlbertasthoughheweredeadandthenneverspokeofhimagain.
Three years later one of her nieces, sister of that same Albert, married well in
Pest. Lotte took charge of the trousseau and took a leading part in the moral
crisisthatthismarriageprovokedinthegreatApfelmaierfamilyofTarnow,rich
only in children and an unsullied religious tradition. The man whom this niece
was to marry was a rich speculator on the Bourse, but a Christian and a
Calvinist, and he made it a condition that the girl should be converted to his
faith. The relatives all opposed this but Lotte, with the interest of the whole
familyinmind,saidthatitwashardtokeepafloatwithsomanypersonsinthe
boatandthatitwassometimesnecessarytothrowsomethingoverboardforthe
salvationofalltherest.Shesupportedthegirlandherwordwasdecisive.The
girlwasbaptizedandmarried.Lottehopedthatwiththehelpofhernewrelative
shewouldbeabletointroduceatleastoneofthosecousinsornephewsnowof
suitableageintothebusinessworldofPest.ButbadluckhaditthattherichPest
speculator died in the first year of marriage. The young wife went almost mad
withgrief.Monthspassedandhergreatgriefdidnotlessen.Theyoungwidow
had now been living in Pest for four years, given over to her unnatural grief
which amounted to a mild form of madness. The great, richly furnished
apartmentwasswathedinblackcloth.Shewenteverydaytothecemetery,sat
by her husband's grave and read softly and devotedly to him the list of market
quotationsforthedayfrombeginningtoend.Toallsuggestionsmadethatshe should awake from the lethargy into which she had fallen she answered softly
that the dead man had loved that above all and that it had been the sweetest
musichehadeverknown.
Thus many destinies of all kinds accumulated in that little room. There were
many accounts, many doubtful bills, many others written off and expunged for
everinthatgreat,many-sidedbookkeepingofLotte's;butthegreatprincipleof
work remained the same. Lotte was tired but she was not discouraged. After
every loss or failure, she would call on her resources, set her teeth and go on
withthestruggle.Inrecentyearsshehadbeenfightingarearguardactionbutshe
went on struggling with the same aim before her eyes and with the same
resolution as she had shown when she made money and went forward in the
world. She was the 'man' of that household and 'Aunt Lotte' to the whole
township.Therewerestillmanybothinthetownandintheoutsideworldwho
waitedforheraid,heradviceoratleastherencouragement,andwhodidnotask
andcouldnotimaginethatLottewastired.Butshewasreallytired,morethan
anyonesuspectedandmorethansheherselfknew.
The little wooden clock on the wall struck one. Lotte rose with difficulty, her
hands on her hips. She carefully extinguished the great green lamp on the
woodenside-tableandwiththeshortstepsofanoldwoman,stepssheusedonly
whenshewasinherownroomandeventhenonlywhengoingtobed,shewent
toliedown.
Therewascompleteanduniversaldarknessoverthesleepingtown.
XXI
Itisnow1914,thelastyearinthechronicleofthebridge
ontheDrina.Itcame
as all earlier years had come, with the quiet pace of winter but with the sullen roar of ever new and ever more unusual events which piled upon one another
likewaves.Somanyyearshadpassedoverthetownandsomanymorewould
still pass over it. There had been, and there still would be, years of every sort, buttheyear1914willalwaysremainunique.Soatleastitseemedtothosewho
livedthroughit.Tothemitseemedthatneverwouldtheybeabletospeakofall
that they had seen then of the course of human destinies, however much, still
concealedbytimeandevents,mightbesaidorwrittenaboutitlater.Howcould
theyexplainandexpressthosecollectiveshudderswhichsuddenlyranthrough
all men and which from living beings were transmitted to inert objects, to
districtsandtobuildings?Howcouldtheydescribethatswirlingcurrentamong
men which passed from dumb animal fear to suicidal enthusiasm, from the
lowest impulses of bloodlust and pillage to the greatest and most noble of
sacrifices,whereinmanforamomenttouchesthesphereofgreaterworldswith
otherlaws?Nevercanthatbetold,forthosewhosawandlivedthroughithave
lostthegiftofwordsandthosewhoaredeadcantellnotales.Thosewerethings
which are not told, but forgotten. For were they not forgotten, how could they
everberepeated?
In that summer of 1914, when the rulers of human destinies drew European
humanity from the playing fields of universal suffrage to the already prepared
arena of universal military service, the town of Višegrad provided a small but
eloquent example of the first symptoms of a contagion which would in time
become European and then spread to the entire world. That was a time on the
limitsoftwoepochsinhumanhistorywhenceonecouldmoreeasilyseetheend
ofthatepochwhichwasclosingthanthebeginningofthatnewonewhichwas
opening.Thenonesoughtforajustificationforviolenceandfoundsomename
borrowed from the spiritual treasury of the past century for savagery and