Hedi Kaddour - Waltenberg

Why doesn’t the young man look at me when I’m talking? Is he bored? Am I boring him? No, when I’m bored I always look at the person I’m talking to, he won’t look at me, he’s good-looking, he knows it, a little too much, it would be delightful to make him feel unsure of himself, Édouard spoils him, he mollycoddles him, the generalised offer of credit, Édouard old man, essence of trade, that’s what you’ve hit on, it’s what we need, circulation, healthy circulation, without dogma or gold standard, a glance from Maynes at the young man.

Out of the corner of her eye, the Baroness watches Maynes and Édouard who have finally got to their feet, she’d like to talk to them but she has Hans Kappler on her hands, he is already anxious to get back to Germany, one of the key men of the Seminar, an important humanist, classed as left-wing, a great one for bringing people together, yet he wants to be off when he’s hardly got here, it’s not on account of a trunk but because of a woman, you couldn’t make it up, he is in the lobby with Madame de Valréas, he can hear singing, a rehearsal, die Welt ist leer, the world is empty, it’s coming from outside, Schumann, not a soprano, a fine, rounded voice, Hans thinks fast, he blanches, Madame de Valréas is suddenly worried, Hans does his best to reassure:

‘It’s nothing, Baroness, it’s the altitude, I should have listened to my doctor, I feel slightly dizzy.’

The Baroness puts it down to the heat, the central heating, she makes Hans step out on to the terrace, lean on me.

The voice that sings is coming from somewhere above their heads, one of the rooms at the front of the building, Hans cannot pin it down, the Baroness puts a hand on his shoulder.

‘You like Schumann, Hans, I know for a fact, it’s a surprise I organised with you specifically in mind, it’s for the last day, you are so pale.’

‘Touch of altitude sickness, Baroness, my heart, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay.’

‘Hans, what on earth are you talking about? Don’t be silly, everyone gets it, the body needs to adapt, that’s all, and you’re not to tell me some story about this being the first time you’ve been here, that time before the war, I know everything.’

The Baroness’s violet eyes bore into Hans’s, she lifts an eyebrow, raises a half-smile to make her mouth more interesting, arches her neck, he was trembling as he stood next to me, I held him by the arm, it was no good blaming the altitude, I knew at once that there was a woman behind it, he was trying to identify the window as if it was a matter of both death and salvation, I didn’t let go of him, I made a mistake about the recital, a genuine recital, Hans, and that’s not all, God he’s shaking, the recital was a mistake, Hans leaving the Seminar the day he arrives, it’s crazy, I was told he might know her, he’s shaking, he’s playing this up, turn the knife in the wound without further ado:

‘Come along, Hans, let’s go and say hello to the singer, or should I call her a prima donna or a diva? I never know what to say, she’ll be delighted.’

‘First I must rest a while, Baroness.’

No, he must see her, kiss her on both cheeks, then he’ll stay and stop being a nuisance, find some reason, I’m sure she’s read your books, Hans, a very personable young woman, come along, damn he’s digging his heels in, her name’s Stirnweiss, that’s done the trick, I’ve said the name and he’s stopped looking green at the gills, he’s stopped shaking, he has a silly grin on his face, she’s not the one he was thinking of, he’s turned back into a man, shoulders back and eyes forward.

‘An excellent programme, Hans: Schubert, Schumann, a closing recital, a little bird told me you like romantic Lied, you see I’m not just a wicked aristocrat in the pay of the steel cartel and ruthless capitalists, I have a heart and a soul, and my European soul chooses music of which my heart makes a gift to my friends, come along!’

Hans does not wish to take the lift, Madame de Valréas holds Hans’s left hand and puts her right arm around his waist, they make their way up the great staircase which rises in a spiral from the middle of the lobby, Hans is not as thin as he looks, she leads him, third floor, corridor on the left, Hans is alert, nonchalant, you change very quickly, what play-acting!

‘Stirnweiss, you say, Baroness? I never came across the name, except perhaps in an American newspaper a few years ago.’

‘Impossible, Hans, I think she did live for some time in the United States. But I gather that Stirnweiss is her stage name.’

The sound of singing comes nearer, Hans can hear it quite distinctly now, the Lied of the widow, a pseudonym, the voice is not as low but rounder than before, with more feeling, she has come back to feeling, it’s her, the song of the widow, she used to sing it, the end of love, die Welt ist leer, the world is empty, I’m the one who’s empty, I shall stand before her clothed in my foolishness, as I did once before, is it fifteen years already? a stupid gesture, I am as empty as I was then, not one drop of blood left, a stage name, and it’s her voice, with feeling, she’s nearly overdoing it, she must always have been emotional underneath but she hid it, it was Nietnagel who couldn’t stand sentiment, she used to say that if you want sentiment in music listen to a military band, I’d rather anything than come face to face with her now, Baroness Valréas’s hand tightens on Hans’s faintly faltering hip, she blames herself, I never know when to keep my mouth shut, I only had to say stage name and he blanches, this man was a hero in the war and he turns white the moment you say stage name, where’s Max got to? never there when you need him, he could look after his friend, keep him here. On the third-floor landing, Hans and Madame de Valréas see Maynes coming towards them.

‘There, Hans, you see one of our greatest economists.’

‘Yes,’ says Hans, ‘we’ve already met, in London.’

One hand is kissed, another is shaken, a few friendly words, no need to hurry, mustn’t give the impression that we are in a hurry, Hans latches on to Maynes, delighted to see you again, you know, I didn’t altogether follow what you said in London about public works and the exponential effect; Maynes isn’t going to pass up an opportunity for converting someone like Kappler, a European with influence, to the cause of public works, even on the landing of a hotel, it’s simple, it can be summed up in a few words, if you permit, Baroness, such works always provide a greater return than the sums invested in them, one Deutschmark invested in public works gives a return of two or three for the overall economy, it’s precisely what happened with the great pyramids, it’s the same with the aftermath of earthquakes.

Maynes leans on the aged oak rail which runs the length of the landing and tries to make it vibrate, fails, smiles, ditto with war, wars have always increased the wealth of nations, you have to know how to spend, bankers don’t like spending, but it’s the same with their gold mines, a very fixed smile on the face of Madame de Valréas, Maynes talks too much, she hasn’t let go of Hans, you spend money digging holes in the ground, adds Maynes, and you call them gold mines, in fact they’re large-scale works, but when it’s about gold, bankers call it sound finance.

Madame de Valréas does not want him to be cut off mid-flow, but Maynes is telling stories about bankers, next time she’ll ask Van Ryssel:

‘Do you believe all this business about public works as much as Maynes does? He spends his time telling me all about it, he’s very nice but I find him just a trifle dogmatic.’

And Van Ryssel will understand that Madame de Valréas speaks on an equal footing with the great and the good, he will ask her when she’d had this talk with Maynes, Van Ryssel is suspicious, a man does not produce a quarter of all Europe’s steel without acquiring a suspicious mind, he is convinced that here in the Waldhaus meetings are being held and will continue to be held without him, since he himself spends his time organising secret meetings he believes everyone else is doing the same, Madame de Valréas will not disabuse him, she will invite him to take coffee with Briand and Wolkenhove, and Van Ryssel will think he’s being invited to a secret meeting, afterwards it will be easier, just between ourselves: