THE OPPERMANNS out much success, to be dashing. Herr Wolfsohn's principal worry was his smalI, irregular, defective teeth, It was espe- cially the gap in the middle of the upper row that was annoy- ing. The Health Insurance Fund had agreed to put a tooth in for hirn. A fellow-member of the Savings Society "Old Pickled Herrings," Hans Schulze, who was a dentist, had explained to him that the job could be much better done by means of a so- called bridge. But the insurance people wouldn't do that, He would have to fork it out himself. About eighty marks was the usual charge. "Old Pickled Herring" Hans Schulze, would do it for seventy, out of pure brotherly feeling for his fellow- member. Herr Wolfsohn might even be able to beat hirn down to sixty-five. Seventy marks was a lot of money. But one's bodily expenses were the most important. What they would put in his mouth he would carry about with hirn his whole life long, and even beyond that, until the Last Judgment. Suppos- ing he still had thirty-five years to live, the cost would be re- duced to about two marks a year, at simple interest, to about eight marks at compound. Four marks seventy-five was a fine premium and he had earned seven premiurns that November. The bridge business would require six or seven attendances, Owing to lack of time, he could not think of undergoing such a lengthy treatment before Christmas. It would be fine to have his frontage fixed up again like new, However, Herr Wolfsohn was clear on one point: that he did not owe his success in life and business to his appearance. He had wrested it from fate by ability and tenacious energy. He had studied salesmanship from the ground up. Above all, one must never shirk any trouble. Not make a mess of things. Never let a customer go, no matter how disagreeable he might be. The Oppermann stocks were well-assorted. A customer might refuse twenty models. One could always find a twenty- first. The great thing was never to appear to be tired. Herr Wolfsohn's sandwiches were finished. But he could

BOOK ONE: YESTERDAY 73 still, in view of the four marks seventy-five, treat himself, to- day, to a chocolate eclair with whipped cream. He ordered one. His pleasant anticipation was clouded for a moment by a paragraph in bis paper. He read with indignation that Na- tional Socialists had wanted to throw a Jewish-Iooking gentle- man out of a moving train on the subway, because he was al- leged to have made a disgusted face when, as they sang their hymn, they came to the lines: "When [ewish blood spurts from the knife, Then things go right again," But they had come up against a strong man. The other pas- sengers helped him, The rowdies could not carry out their in- tention. They were, on the contrary, as the newspaper stated with pleasure, arrested and faced with the punishment they deserved. Herr Wolfsohn read the news with uneasiness, However, his uneasiness did not last. It was an isolated case of violence. On the whole, the political outlook was more re- assuring than it had been for a long time. Schleicher, the Chancellor, kept a firm hand on the Nationalist party, the peak of the movement was paste Herr Wolfsohn read that three times a day; in the morning the Morgenpost, at noon the Berliner Zeitung, and in the evening the Acht-Uhr Abendblatt published irrefutable information to the effect that the Na- tional Socialists could under no circumstances achieve further successes, Herr Wolfsohn was in complete accord with himself and the world. \ Had he not reason to be quiet and happy? If Moritz dropped in this evening, his brother-in-law Moritz Ehrenreich, he'd give him asound calling-down again. Moritz Ehrenreich, tvpe-setter in the firm of the United Wholesale Printing Com-