‘God forbid!’ The bookseller, too, rose from his seat. ‘Hope? Of course you may hope! The job is already in your pocket, my friend! I’ve been waiting for you, as I told you before. The salary is one hundred and eighty schillings a month. At the beginning. You’ll get a raise later. If that suits you, you’re my man.’

After brief negotiations they agreed that he would start the next day at a salary of two hundred schillings a month, only because he, Dr Kreindel, was not prepared to lose a man like him, a kindred spirit, etc …

Gurdweill said goodbye and left the shop. He turned absent-mindedly towards the Kai, walking rapidly as if he had no time to waste. Anxiety gnawed at him, even though he still had a whole day of freedom in front of him. In a secret corner of his soul he was disappointed by the positive result of the interview. He was flooded by a wave of nostalgia for the days of recent months, days that were all his, every single minute of them, to do as he liked without any stranger interfering. Despite their poverty and the petty cares that filled them, these days now seemed to him flawlessly beautiful, worth their weight in gold — and now they were over. From tomorrow he would have to spend eight hours a day with that scoundrel, that buffoon, day in and day out, every day the same as the one before. Life, it seemed, had laws of its own, which could not always be adapted to suit the heart’s desires.