BOOK ONE: YESTERDAY 43 upset the pleasant mood of the evening and translated into the sober speech of every day, disconcertingly, what Jaques Lavendel had expressed with cool prudence and Friedrich Wil- helm Gutwetter in general poetic terms. It was the girl Ruth Oppermann, aged seventeen, who had been silent the whole evening and now suddenly burst out: "You all have such ex- cellent theories, you explain everything so cleverly, you know everything. The others know nothing, they don't care a rap if their theories are stupid and all contradictory. But they know one thing. They know exactly what they want. They aet. They do something. I tell you, Uncle Jaques, and you, Uncle Martin, they are going to do the trick and you will get left." She stood there, a little awkwardly, the blue dress hanging badlyon her body. Her mother, Gina Oppermann, did not understand how to dress her. Her black hair looked di- shevelled, despite the careful coiffure. But her large eyes peered passionately and resolutely out of her tan face; her speech was maturer than that of a child. The others had stopped talking, there was absolute silence when she had finished; only the loud ticking of the clock was audible, and the God's Eye moved from left to right, from right to left, Professor Edgar Oppermann, smiling a shade ironically, was at the same time proud of his spirited daughter. But Gina Oppermann, her mother, a smalI, insig- nificant woman, was completely enchanted hy Ruth. Ruth was just like her father, she would certainly one day be as great as he, the great doctor. She was very different from the other girls they knew. She had only two interests, politics and medi- eine. She was a Zionist and already spoke Hebrew fairly weIl. She intended to study in Berlin, London, and Palestine and then establish herself as a doctor in Palestine. Gustav Oppermann was pleased with his niece Ruth. He often made fun, in a genial way, of her Zionism. But he con- sidered it a good thing that this type existed in the Oppermann

THE OPPEIlMANNS. family. If it had not been for her passion and intensity, some- thing essential would have heen lacking. Her fanaticism made her seem aetually heautiful. She was young enough to be pardoned for her absurdities, The pretty, blonde, sharp-oosed Caroline Theiss watched the impetuous, plain girl with amusement, Ellen Rosendorfi, how- ever, did not smile, Gustav Oppermann had certainly invited some curious people to meet one another.. Ellen Rosendorff, tall, slirn, and dark-skinned, with almond eyes,. had Met Gus- tav Oppermann at the Red and White Tennis Club. She was fond of society, sport, and flirtations. Her sophistication was a piquant contrast to her biblical appearance. She had a sharp tongue and enjoyed small, malicious jokes, She was ODe of the young Jewesses with whom the Crown Prince flirted, and the rernark she had made when the Prince's car, which he drove himself, had had a narrow escape from an accident, was known a11 over town, "You must drive carefully, monsieur. Just think of us two lying underneath the smashed car in a single un- recognizable mass. ODe can't conceive Jewish bones in the mausoleum at Potsdam, and those of a Hohenzollem in the Jcwish cemetery at Weissensee," She had scarcdy ever changed her tone with Gustav Oppermann either; they talked of noth- ing hut the thousand little things that rich and idle people talk about. And yet it was more than a superficial pleasure in each other's company that bound the two regether. He realized that her sophistication was a defensive mask, that aetually she was melancholy, tortured by the futile activities of her existence, And she was aware of similar traits in him, which, however, were less apparent and which he would not admit, She watched Ruth Oppermann now with a serious and inquisitive expression. If anyone would take the trouble, he eould turn Ruth Oppermann, without difficulty, into a fashion- able Berlin lady; bur it would, in most cases, be useless to