22 THE OPPERMANNS security, it was as well to be cautious. The onlY sensible scheme would be to ternporize with Wels and keep him in a good hurnour. His, Martin's, manner was not the right one for such an interview as this, Old Immanuel would certainly have known better how to handle this stiff, obstinate fellow. Herr Wels was also ill at ease, One got no further, talking like this, "Things are not going weIl with me," said he, "and they are not going weIl with you either. We girls needn't be afraid to tell each other that." He twisted his grim mouth into a smile. The waggish phrase, uttered by his grim voice, sounded twice as gloomy. They went into details. Martin took out his eyeglasses, which he very seldom used, and polished them. Herr Opper- mann really found it difficult putting up with Herr Wels to- day, and Herr Wels had the same difficulty with Herr Opper- mann. Each found the other overbearing. The conference was a torment for them both. Herr Wels felt that the Oppermanns were not taking the matter seriously. What they wanted to embark upon was an enterprise that committed them to very little. They wanted to rnerge one of the Berlin and one of the provincial branches with two corresponding establishments be- Ionging to Wels. This proposal did not interest Herr Wels. 1f things went badly, the Oppermanns would lose two of their eight branches. That would not worry them much. But he would lose two out of his three branches and be ruined. "I see that I have made a rnistake," said Herr Wels tartly. "I thought we might be able to come to terms. Agree to an armis- tice," he corrected hirnself, with a thin, grim smile. Stout Mar- tin Oppermann assured him courteously and glibly that he had no idea of regarding the negotiations a failure. He was certain that if the matter could be more thoroughly discussed, an agreement would be reached. Herr Wels shrugged his shoulders. He had persuaded him- self that the Oppermanns were done for, It now appeared that

BOOK ONE: YESTERDAY 23 they thought that he, not they, was done for. They wanted to put hirn off with an appetizer and then devour the dinner themselves. He departed gloorniIy, in arage. "Those gentlemen are going to burn their fingers some day," he thought, as he went down in the elevator. He did not merely think it, he muttered the words. The elevator-boy looked at the scowling man in arnazement. 3 After the interview Martin sat down at his big desk. Wels Il. had scarcely Ieft the room before he shed his gracious, confident manner. He had not reached his goal. He had made a mess of it. He sat there gIumly, vexed with himself. He sent for the chief clerks, Siegfried Brieger and Karl The- odor Hintze. "WeIl, did you get on with the fire-eating Cgoi' ?" Siegfried Brieger shot the question at hirn right away, after a perfunctory greeting. The brisk little man, in his early sixties, lean, irascible, distinctly Jewish in appearance, drew up achair close to his chief. His big nose, over a growth of muddy-grey moustache, made a sniffing sound. Karl Theodor Hintze, on the other hand, remained on his feet at a respectful distance, with a reserved demeanour, obviously disapproving of the in- formal haste of his colleague. Karl Theodor Hintze disapproved of everything that Herr Brieger did and Herr Brieger made a joke of everything that Karl Theodor Hintze did. Karl Theodor Hintze had been, during the war, captain of the company in which Brieger was serving as an ordinary conscript. Their mutual relations were the same then as now. They had already discovered, in those days, how very dependent they were upon each other. After