anything. It's always the same old story: promises come cheap. How naive you are, Lola!"
"All the same, George, you ought to have a word with him some time. I'm not trying to talk you into it, of course — these things are a closed book to me — but if you're really set on giving up your job . . . Herr Bamberger makes a good impression, believe me. He looks like a man who knows exactly what he wants."
"Good heavens, it's gone eleven, I must dash! All right, I'll give your Herr Bamberger the once-over, but I'm pinning no hopes on him and I don't fall for empty promises. Human beings are unscrupulous swine, all of them, I know that now. One lives and learns, Lola dear, one lives and learns."
They were sitting side by side in a window alcove in the Dom-café. Franzi, who had finished her lunch, asked for a cigarette. Vit¬torin opened his case and held it out.
"I've still got a few Russian left - help yourself. They're the ones with the mouthpiece. Go on, take one. It's Crimean tobacco. In Siberia we also smoked Chinese tobacco. There was a very high-grade, expensive kind with an unusual aroma, but that was unobtainable. I only knew one man who smoked it."
Vit¬torin fell silent. He endeavoured to hold his cigarette in a special way, clamped between his ring finger and the tip of his little finger, but he couldn't do it properly and gave up.
"I must be back in the office by one," Franzi said, "but I've got a lot to tell you first. Do you know the latest? That young man from Agram got in touch again!"
Vit¬torin was drifting away from her, she could tell. She was no longer at the centre of his thoughts, she sensed that more and more distinctly every day and was frightened of losing him for good. Vaguely aware that some strange, hostile force was luring him away, she was determined not to give him up without a fight. Hoping to hold him and rekindle his waning love, she had boasted of imaginary flirtations and pretended that various men were ardently pursuing her. One of her most successful inventions, and the one she employed most often, was a Croatian medical student who tried to woo her in Viennese dialect. He had almost become flesh and blood, and she made him show up in Vienna as often as required. In addition to the Croatian student there was a sentimental giant, a courier from the Swedish Legation who sang superbly to the guitar, and a shameless young baron who wanted to install Franzi in an apartment and take her travelling with him.
"The young man from Agram?" Vit¬torin said absently. "The medical student, you mean? Is he back in Vienna?"
"Yes, just imagine, he called me at the office two days ago, even though I'd already forbidden him to do so twice - I told you, remember? I don't like being rung up by all and sundry, my boss might disapprove. Anyway, I said to myself, just wait, you Croatian pest, today you're going to get a flea in your ear, but he was so nice and amusing on the phone I hadn't the heart. 'Hello there, sweetheart,' he said, 'I can't wait to see you again. How are you, and how's that old scoundrel of a boss of yours?' He's terribly familiar on the phone, you see, because he knows I can't really tell him off."
Franzi paused for a moment. She searched Vit¬torin's face but failed to find what she sought. He was listening with an air of complete indifference.
"Well," she went on, "now for a little fun, I thought to myself, so I asked him, all innocent, 'Are you staying here long, Herr Milosh? Will you still be in Vienna on the first of December?' I haven't told you this, but my parents are planning a week-end trip to the country at the end of the month -you know, to visit my uncle, the one with the farm at Gloggnitz - and they're looking forward to it immensely. They leave on Saturday and they won't be back till Monday. I'm giving our old maidservant the day off and sending her home to her family, which means I'll have the apartment all to myself. I didn't say that to the young man from Agram
"All the same, George, you ought to have a word with him some time. I'm not trying to talk you into it, of course — these things are a closed book to me — but if you're really set on giving up your job . . . Herr Bamberger makes a good impression, believe me. He looks like a man who knows exactly what he wants."
"Good heavens, it's gone eleven, I must dash! All right, I'll give your Herr Bamberger the once-over, but I'm pinning no hopes on him and I don't fall for empty promises. Human beings are unscrupulous swine, all of them, I know that now. One lives and learns, Lola dear, one lives and learns."
They were sitting side by side in a window alcove in the Dom-café. Franzi, who had finished her lunch, asked for a cigarette. Vit¬torin opened his case and held it out.
"I've still got a few Russian left - help yourself. They're the ones with the mouthpiece. Go on, take one. It's Crimean tobacco. In Siberia we also smoked Chinese tobacco. There was a very high-grade, expensive kind with an unusual aroma, but that was unobtainable. I only knew one man who smoked it."
Vit¬torin fell silent. He endeavoured to hold his cigarette in a special way, clamped between his ring finger and the tip of his little finger, but he couldn't do it properly and gave up.
"I must be back in the office by one," Franzi said, "but I've got a lot to tell you first. Do you know the latest? That young man from Agram got in touch again!"
Vit¬torin was drifting away from her, she could tell. She was no longer at the centre of his thoughts, she sensed that more and more distinctly every day and was frightened of losing him for good. Vaguely aware that some strange, hostile force was luring him away, she was determined not to give him up without a fight. Hoping to hold him and rekindle his waning love, she had boasted of imaginary flirtations and pretended that various men were ardently pursuing her. One of her most successful inventions, and the one she employed most often, was a Croatian medical student who tried to woo her in Viennese dialect. He had almost become flesh and blood, and she made him show up in Vienna as often as required. In addition to the Croatian student there was a sentimental giant, a courier from the Swedish Legation who sang superbly to the guitar, and a shameless young baron who wanted to install Franzi in an apartment and take her travelling with him.
"The young man from Agram?" Vit¬torin said absently. "The medical student, you mean? Is he back in Vienna?"
"Yes, just imagine, he called me at the office two days ago, even though I'd already forbidden him to do so twice - I told you, remember? I don't like being rung up by all and sundry, my boss might disapprove. Anyway, I said to myself, just wait, you Croatian pest, today you're going to get a flea in your ear, but he was so nice and amusing on the phone I hadn't the heart. 'Hello there, sweetheart,' he said, 'I can't wait to see you again. How are you, and how's that old scoundrel of a boss of yours?' He's terribly familiar on the phone, you see, because he knows I can't really tell him off."
Franzi paused for a moment. She searched Vit¬torin's face but failed to find what she sought. He was listening with an air of complete indifference.
"Well," she went on, "now for a little fun, I thought to myself, so I asked him, all innocent, 'Are you staying here long, Herr Milosh? Will you still be in Vienna on the first of December?' I haven't told you this, but my parents are planning a week-end trip to the country at the end of the month -you know, to visit my uncle, the one with the farm at Gloggnitz - and they're looking forward to it immensely. They leave on Saturday and they won't be back till Monday. I'm giving our old maidservant the day off and sending her home to her family, which means I'll have the apartment all to myself. I didn't say that to the young man from Agram
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