BOOK ONE: YESTERDAY Edgar sighed. So Privy Councillor Lorenz wished to speak to hirn. Lorenz was the presiding physician of all the clinics in the municipality. He was not very strong in theory but he was a hard-working practitioner, and he did not despise theory, as many such practitioners do. He respected learning and gave it his humble support to the best of his ability. He had also agreed, in principle, to support the candidacy of Dr. Jacoby. Nevertheless, Edgar feIt a certain uneasiness at the prospect of this interview. Lorenz was coming at twelve. Edgar had, therefore, to leave his round of visits in the wards to Dr. Reimers. "All right," he sighed. "1'11 be here at twelve. If I should be a few minutes late, pIease ask Privy Councillor Lorenz to wait for me." Edgar was always late. Nurse Helene always allowed for that, It was convenient today. She had certain things to dis- cuss with Privy Councillor Lorenz which concerned her Pro- fessor. Edgar turned towards her. Now that he had come to a deci- sion, his face changed. It was again the brisk, confident face of Edgar Opperrnann as the world knew it. "At any rate, I still have time to go to the lab, haven't I, Nurse?" he smiled. "And as for all this," he pointed to the papers in front of hirn. "As for all this, you can let me off it today, now that I have con- sented to see Lorenz." He grinned slyly, like a schoolboy sneaking off from an unpleasant task, stood up, and was out of the room in amoment. With a rapid step, toes turned in, he sailed through the long, linoleum-covered corridors to the laboratory. Dr, Jacoby sat over the microscope, a little man with stooping shoulders. Ed- gar Oppermann gave hirn a quick sign not to disturb himself. But Dr. Jacoby rose. The slirn, worried-looking, awkward fel- low gave Edgar the soft, dry hand of a child. Edgar knew of the trouble he had, being naturally inclined to excessive per- spiration, to keep his hands always dry so he would not be

TUE OPPERMANNS hampered in his professional work. "We must not deceive our- selves, Professor Oppermann," said Dr, Jacoby. "The outcome of case 834 is hopeless. It was in its third stage." Edgar shrugged his shoulders. The Oppermann treatment, that surgical operation which had made hirn famous, could no Ionger be applied, after a certain stage, without the risk of a fatal result. He had never denied that, With Dr, Jacoby, he became absorbed in a discussion of the cases. It was important to define the various stages of the disease minutely, to know precisely when the second phase passed over into the third. Some means had positively to be found to reduce the coef- ficient of uncertainty. Dr, Jacoby argued with his chief passionately yet haltingly. The conviction forced itself upon the latter more persistently than ever, that if anyone was the right man to perfect the Op- permann treatment, it was this fanatic for precision. Tothat fellow Jacoby, the figur es of the statistics of the disease-charts were really more important than the figures of his income. He had completely forgotten that he was speaking to the one man who could give hirn an assured livelihood. And the other, too, cornpletely forgot that he would very shortly have to engage in an interview which would be decisive for the fate of his partner. Humped up in his white doctor's smock, as if he were freezing, the little man squatted in his seat, crouching in a stiff, clumsy attitude. The other, however, paced up and down with his brisk, precise stride, his toes turned in, the white smock flapping about his legs. Both rnen had their minds closed to everything which had no hearing on the vitality and fertility of a certain bacillus. Suddenly Edgar gave a start, He took out his watch. It was ten minutes past twelve, The thought came to hirn seething hot, that old Lorenz was waiting for hirn. He stopped short in the middle of a sentence. Little Dr. Jacohy, who had been, the