BOOK ONE: YESTERDAY 29 damm for football practice. That would be a good excuse. His fun would, to be sure, make a hole in the three hours he had set apart for "Hurnanism," Oh, rot. He could always dig up time for "Humanism," When he would get another chance of digging up the car, goodness only knew. As soon, therefore, as lunch was over, Berthold took leave of his parents. He telephoned to his school friend, Kurt Bau- mann, and asked him to meet him at the Halle Gate to go out to the ball-fidd on the Saehsendamm. Kurt Baumann was not very keen, His radio set was out of order, he had taken it to pieces, he wanted to find out exacrly what the trouble was: that took time. But Berthold persisted. He spoke of a surprise he had for Kurt Baumann. There was something so trium- phant in bis tone that Kurt Baumann guessed and burst out: "You've got the earl Oh, say, that'll be greatl" Berthold Op- permann was reaIly a good sport, he was decent about shar- ing, he copied Baumann's mathematics and let Baumann copy his German essay, and when Franzke the chauffeur handed over the wheel to the boys, he only drove two-thirds of the time and ler Kurt Baumann drive the other third. At last they got to the point when Berthold sat next to Franzke the chauffeur at the steering wheel. He was thick with Franzke the chauffeur. Franzke, of course, had his moods and did not always encourage conversation. But today he did. Ber- thold saw that at once, He would be sure to let him take the wheel, in spite of the fact that people under eighteen were not allowed to drive. He was in a fever of impatience to reach the suburbs. But it would be unmanly to show his impatience. So he started a serious, manly conversation with August on the present state of affairs, dealing with economics and poli- ties. August Franzke and the boy understood each other ex- cellently. When Franzke, later, as was only fair, let Kurt Baumann take the wheel and Berthold sat at the back of the car with

Tl-IE OPPERMANNS nothing to do, he suddenly remembered a certain experience immediately after the fun eral of Dr, Heinzius. He had been allowed to drive out to the distant cemetery in the car, and on the way back he had taken Kurt Baumann and his cousin Heinrich Lavendel with hirn. He had been very much impressed by the gloomy grey cernetery in the woods at Stahnsdorf and by the funeral proceedings. However, the other two, only five minutes after the burial of Dr, Heinzius, seemed far more interested in the car than in the dead man, above a11 in the question whether Franzke the chauffeur would in the end allow them to take the forbidden wheel. Berthold did not understand how his friends could so quickly forget their recent experience. Even now, while Kurt Bau- mann sat at the wheel, it made him feel puzzled and pensive. When, however, he himself was allowed to take the wheel, all such thoughts vanished. Within and without him, nothing existed but the Berlin traffic of the south-western district. 5 M ean wh ile, in Cornelius Strasse, the arrival of Jaques Lavendel was expected. Frau Liselotte anticipated it with pleasure. Martin, she knew, did not exactly see in his brother-in-Iaw Jaques a man after his own heart, It was a trial to hirn that his younger sister, Klara Oppermann, had mar- ried this man from Eastern Europe, [aques was, of course, an excellent man of business, he was well off, knew the world, and was always agreeable. But he lacked a sense of dignity, of formality, of reserve. It was not that he had noisy or boisterous manners. But he referred to unpleasant matters so baldly, and