102 THE OPPERMANNS saluting Vogelsang, he would remain stiffiy at attention even after the senior master had walked paste Who was it who had always said that the new man would, one of these days, show these donkeys what was what? And who was showing them now? Once more it was proved that Mellenthin, the porter, had a good nose. 17 I n two hundred and twelve out of the two hundred and seventy flats in the block in Friedrich Karl Strasse at Tem- pelhof, Christmas trees were lit, They had cost anything from one to four marks apiece; they were for the most part modest little fir trees, ornamented with all sorts of fripperies, little candles and tinsei and with brightly coloured, not exactly wholesome, sweetmeats. Gifts lay beneath them, heterogeneous yet always of the same types: underclothing, wearing apparel, cigars, chocolate, toys, gingerbread. People with particularly grandiose ideas had soared to a camera or a radio. Two bicycles had also been presented on the block in Friedrich Karl Strasse. The price tickets of the various presents had, for the most part, been removed. But the recipient did not have to inquire very long before being informed of the exact cost. In Herr Wolfsohn's Bat, too, a Christmas tree had been lighted. Herr Wolfsohn had had grandiose ideas. He had paid two marks seventy for the tree. It had been marked at three marks fifty but the shopkeeper had made a reduction of eighty pfennigs. Anyway, it had heen easy for Herr Wolfsohn to do things on a grand scale. The improbahle had happened. The gallant steed, Quelques Fleurs, had won a smashing vic- tory. On the first of December Herr Wolfsohn had a surplus of eighty-two marks that Frau Wolfsohn knew nothing about,

BOOK ONE: YESTERDA Y 103 But she was to have her share in this secret hoard. He had spent his money like a lord. Here she was standing before the long-coveted reserve bedspread, astounded at its fine quality. Herr Wolfsohn had only paid twenty-five marks for it, She gazed admiringly at him. She had never come across any shopwhere she would have had to pay less than thirty-two marks for a bedspread like that, Neither had Herr Wolfsohn, for that matter, since he had actually paid thirty-four marks. Elschen's winter coat was of such a kind, too, that Frau Hoppegart, who had wrinkled her nose so often in the past, would have nothing left to sniff at, Even Bob had received something quite magnificent. It was a bombing plane. If you wound it up, it rose into the air and dropped a rubber ball. On its cardboard box was printed: "First-Class Bombing Plane. The terms of the Versailles treaty forbid Germany to protect her frontiers. The day will corne when Germany will break her chains. Remember." However, Herr Wolfsohn had also thought of himself. The insurance people could keep their silly tooth. He was going to treat himself to the bridge. That very morning he had be- gun to turn his dream into a fact, He had telephoned Hans Schulze of the "Old Pickled Herrings" and given hirn the commission to renovate his frontage. He would, of course, tell Frau Wolfsohn that he had finally persuaded the insurance people to supply the bridge. As soon as the work was finished, he would pay Schulze fifty marks down, the balance of fifteen marks he could easily pay in small instalments. The work would be started directly after Christmas, and during the first days of the new year Markus Wolfsohn would be able to in- troduce his new tooth to his astonished associates. He kept the secret to himself, did not say a single word about it even to Frau Wolfsohn. But, inwardly, he was very pro ud of himself. He imagined what he would look like with his new frontage. He had visions of posters from which beamed elegant gentle-