Пользователь - o 3b3e7475144cf77c
that the wild talk of the Nazis was perhaps the only way to get votes just now. He had his
private sources of information, and knew that the responsible leaders were embarrassed by
the recklessness of their young followers. If you studied the Nazi program carefully you would
see that it was full of all sorts of "jokers" and escape clauses. The campaign orators of Berlin had
been promising the rabble "confiscation without compensation" of the great estates of the
Junkers; but meanwhile, in East Prussia, they had got the support of the Jun kers by pointing
to the wording of the program: the land to be confiscated must be "socially necessary." And
how easy to decide that the land of your friends and supporters didn't come within that
category!
But all the same Johannes decided to move some more funds to Amsterdam and London,
and to consult Robbie Budd about making more investments in America. Hundreds of other
German capitalists took similar steps; and of course the Nazis found it out, and their press
began to cry that these "traitor plutocrats" should be punished by the death penalty.
XI
The rich did not give up their pleasures on account of elections, nor yet of election results.
The fashionable dressmakers, the milliners, the jewelers came clamoring for appointments with
the famous Frau Lanny Budd, geborene Irma Barnes. They displayed their choicest wares, and
skilled workers sat up all night and labored with flying fingers to meet her whims. When she
was properly arrayed she sallied forth, and the contents of her trunks which Feathers had
brought from Juan, were placed at the disposal of the elder Frau Budd, who dived into them
with cries of delight, for they had barely been worn at all and had cost more than anything she
had ever been able to afford in her life. A few alterations, to allow for embonpoint attributable
to the too rich fare of the yacht, and a blond and blooming Beauty was ready to stand before
kings — whether of steel, coal, or chemicals, potash, potatoes, or Renten-marks.
She did not feel humiliated to play second fiddle in the family, for after all she was a
grandmother; also, she had not forgotten the lesson of the Wall Street collapse. Let Irma go on
paying the family bills and nursing the family infant, and her mother-in-law would do
everything in the power of a highly skilled social intriguer to promote her fortunes, put her in
a good light, see that she met the right people and made the right impressions. Beauty would
even write to Irma's mother and urge her to come to Berlin and help in this task; there must
never be any rivalry or jealousy between them; on the contrary, they must be partners in the
duty of seeing that Irma got everything to which her elegance, charm, and social position—Beauty
didn't say wealth—entitled her.
Lanny, of course, had to play up to this role; he had asked for it, and now couldn't back out.
He had to let the tailors come and measure him for new clothes, and stand patiently while
they made a perfect fit. No matter how bored he was, no matter how much he would have
preferred trying some of Hindemith's new compositions! His mother scolded him, and taught
his wife to scold him; such is the sad fate of kind-hearted men. When he and Irma were invited
to a dinner-party by the Prinz Ilsaburg zu Schwarzadler or to a ball at the palace of the Baron
von Friedrichsbrunn, it would have been unthinkable to deprive Irma of such honors and a
scandal to let some other man escort her.
It wasn't exactly a scandal for Johannes Robin to escort the elder Frau Budd, for it was
known that he had a wife who was ill-adapted to a fashionable career. Beauty, on the other
hand, had taken such care of her charms that you couldn't guess her years; she was a
gorgeous pink rose, now fully unfolded. Fashionable society was mistaken in its assumptions
concerning her host and her self, for both this strangely assorted pair were happy with their
respective spouses, and both spouses preferred staying at home—Mama Robin to watch over the
two infants whom she adored equally, and Parsifal Dingle to read his New Thought
publications and say those prayers which he was firmly assured were influencing the souls of
all the persons he knew, keeping them free from envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness.
Parsifal himself had so little of these worldly defects that he didn't even know that it was a
humiliation to have his wife referred to as the elder Frau Budd.
The Jew who had been born in a hut with a mud floor in the realm of the Tsar was proud to
escort the Budd ladies about die grosse Welt of Berlin. He told them so with a frankness
touched with humor and untouched with servility. He said that when he was with them his
blood was pure and his fortune untainted. He said that many a newly arrived Schieber was
paying millions of marks for social introductions which he, the cunning one, was getting
practically free. He could say such things, not merely because Bess and Hansi had made their
families one, but because he knew that Robbie Budd needed Johannes in a business way as
much as Johannes needed Robbie's ladies in a social way. A fair deal, and all parties concerned
understood it.
So the former Jascha Rabinowich of Lodz gave a grand reception and ball in honor of the
two Damen Budd. Decorations were planned, a list of guests carefully studied, and the chefs
labored for a week preparing fantastical foods; the reception-rooms of the marble palace
which looked like a railway station came suddenly to resemble a movie director's dream of Bali
or Brazil. Anyhow, it was a colossal event, and Johannes said that the magnates who came
wouldn't be exclusively his own business associates, the statesmen wouldn't be exclusively those
who had got campaign funds from him, and the members of the aristocracy wouldn't be
exclusively those who owed him money. "Moreover," added the shrewd observer, "they will
bring their wives and daughters."
XII
Lanny Budd, in his best bib and tucker, wandering about in this dazzling assemblage, helping
to do the honors, helping to make people feel at home; dancing with any overgrown Prussian
Backfisch who appeared to be suffering from neglect; steering the servitors of food toward any
dowager whose stomach capacity hadn't been entirely met. Dowagers with large pink bosoms,
no shoulder-straps, and perfectly incredible naked backs; servitors in pink-and-green uniforms
with gold buttons, white silk gloves and stockings, and pumps having rosettes. Lanny has
dutifully studied the list of important personages, so that he will know whom he is greeting
and commit no faux pas. He has helped to educate his wife, so that she can live up to the
majesty of her fortune. Never think that a social career is for an idler!
"Do you know General Graf Stubendorf?" inquires one of the enormous elderly Valkyries.
"I have never had the honor," replies the American. "But I have visited Seine Hochgeboren's
home on many occasions."
"Indeed?" says Seine Hochgeboren. He is tall and stiff as a ramrod, with sharp, deeply lined
features, gray hair not more than a quarter of an inch in length, a very bright new uniform with
orders and decorations which he has earned during four years of never-to-be-forgotten war.
Lanny explains: "I have been for most of my life a friend of Kurt Meissner."
"Indeed?" replies the General Graf. "We consider him a great musician, and are proud of him
at Stubendorf."
"I have spent many Christmases at the Meissner home," continues the young American. "I had
the pleasure of listening to you address your people each year; also I heard your honored
father, before the war."
"Indeed?" says Seine Hochgeboren, again. "I cannot live there any longer, but I go back two
or three times a year, out of loyalty to my people." The gray-haired warrior is conveying to a
former foe: "I cannot bear to live in my ancestral home because it has become a part of
Poland, and is governed by persons whom I consider almost subhuman. You and your armies
did it, by meddling without warrant in the affairs of Germany and snatching her hard-won
victory from her grasp. Then you went off and left us to be plundered by the rapacious French
and the shopkeeping British."
It is not a subject to be explored, so Lanny says some polite words of no special significance and
passes on, reflecting: "If Johannes thinks he is winning that gentleman, he is surely fooling
himself!"
XIII
But Lanny was making a mistake, as he discovered later in the evening. The stiff aristocrat
approached him and spoke again, in a more cordial tone. "Mr. Budd, I have been realizing, I
remember you in Stubendorf. Also I have heard Meissner speak of you."
"Herr Meissner has treated me as if I were another of his sons," replied Lanny, modestly.
" Ein braver Mensch," said Seine Hochgeboren. "His sons have rendered admirable
service." He went on to speak of the family of his Comptroller-General, upon whose capability
and integrity he depended as had his father before him. While hearing this formal speech,
Lanny guessed what must have happened. The dowager Valkyrie had reminded the General
Graf that this was the lucky young Taugenichts who had married the fabulously wealthy
heiress. Not, as Seine Hochgeboren had supposed, some young snipe trying to make himself
important by claiming intimacy with one of a nobleman's employees!
So here was a great aristocrat manifesting condescension, noblesse oblige. He knew all about
Mr. Budd, oh, of course! "Kurt Meissner composed much of his music in your home, I have
heard." He didn't add: "Kurt Meissner was your mother's lover for many years, I have
heard." He talked about Kurt's compositions and showed that he really knew about them; echt
deutsche Musik which could be praised without reserve. A young Franco-American who had
built a studio for a musical genius to work in could meet on equal terms a Junker who had
furnished a cottage for the genius to raise his
family in.
Presently it came out that Lanny had served as a secretary-translator on the staff of the
American Commission to Negotiate Peace. "I should be interested to talk to you about those
Paris days," remarked the officer. "You might be able to explain some points about the
American attitude which have always been a mystery to me."
"I should be pleased to do my best," said Lanny, politely. "You must realize that your
beautiful Schloss made a great impression upon a small boy, and your father and yourself
appeared to me as very grand personalities."
Seine Hochgeboren smiled graciously. He hadn't the slightest doubt that, his father had been
a grand personality, or that he was one now. "Are you planning to come to Stubendorf this
Christmas?" he inquired.
"Kurt has been inviting us," was the reply. "I am not sure if we can arrange it."
"I would be happy if you and your wife would visit the Schloss as my guests," said the
General Graf.
"Thank you very much," replied the younger man. "I should have to ask the Meissners to give
us up."
"I think they would do so," the other suggested, dryly.
"I will let you know a little later. I must consult my wife." Another peculiarity of Americans—
they consulted their wives instead of telling them! But of course when the wife was as rich as this
one —what was her name?
XIV
They watched that valuable wife, dancing with a handsome young attache of the American
embassy staff. She was more than ever the young brunette Juno; some skilled couturier must
have had the thought, for he had made her a gown of white silk chiffon with a hint of ancient
Greece in it. For jewels she wore only her double rope of pearls; a fortune such as hers was
beyond any quantity of stones to symbolize, and had better be left to the newspapers to proclaim.
She danced with stately grace, smiled gently, and never chattered; yes, a young goddess, and an
ornament to any Schieber's ballroom.
When the party was over, Lanny escorted her upstairs. She had promised to have no more
than two glasses of champagne, and had kept her word, but was not a little excited by the
presence of so many distinguished persons, all of whom had costumes, manners, and modes of
speech calculated to impress the daughter of a onetime Wall Street errand boy. She and her
husband talked about this one and that while the maid helped her off with her gown. After she
had rested for the required fifteen minutes, the baby was brought in for a nursing; quite a bundle
now, nearly eight months old, and full of kicks and squirms and gurgles. She never needed any
invitation, but took hold promptly, and while she worked away, Lanny told the mother about
the invitation to Stubendorf. He had talked a lot about the "Christmas-card castle" with its
snow-covered roofs gleaming in the early morning sunshine, and had made it seem as romantic to
Irma as it had to him seventeen years ago.
"Shall we go?" she asked.
"If you would enjoy it."
"I think it would be ducky!" Then, after some reflection: "You and I really make a pretty good
social team, don't we, Lanny!"
7
I Have Seen Tempests
I
THE results of the election had set Heinrich Jung in a seat of authority. He called Lanny on
the telephone and poured out his exultation. There was no party but the N.S.D.A.P., and
Heinrich was its prophet! Therefore, would Lanny come to his home some evening and meet
his wife and one of his friends? Lanny said he would be happy to do so; he had just received a
letter from Rick, saying that the German vote had made a great impression in England, and if
Lanny would send a bunch of literature and some of his own notes as to the state of mind of
the country, Rick could write an article for one of the weeklies. Lanny wanted to help his
