She didn’t answer. Then she took out a cigarette, which he lit for her. That brought them closer together, and their eyes met once more. He sat back in his seat.

“If I weren’t Jewish,” he said almost casually, “and naturally if I weren’t married, I would tell you how appealing I find you.”

“Really?” she asked, and smiled. “And why do you say it when you really don’t intend to?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “The words just spoke themselves.”

“Why don’t you simply get a different passport?” She changed the subject. “If your passport was in the name of Gottlieb Müller, everything would be very easy for you. I saw that once in a film, a man changed his identity, I think that’s what they called it. So isn’t it really just a—technical issue? No one would think you’re Jewish if you weren’t named Silbermann. It’s actually quite simple.”

“I don’t have any experience with that kind of fraud,” he explained, annoyed at her playful way of treating his most serious worries, matters of life and death. He scrutinized her with a look that was both insulted and insulting.

“But why? It would be self-defense. With a name like that you could live and work. You’d be rid of your worries.”

“It’s a good thing your friend the lawyer can’t hear you. His hair would be standing on end!”

“Yes, my husband is also so horribly upstanding and upright. Always everything by the book. Only capable of doing what other people have done before. But at the moment isn’t it a bit difficult for you to live your life according to some grand guiding principle?”

“In any case they’ve stolen whatever chance I had to live according to mine. But the fact that crimes are committed against me doesn’t entitle me to take such steps.”

She looked at him mockingly. “Yes I know, I know,” she said. “‘Noble be man, helpful and good.’ Of course when a man is just plain scared of everybody else, then being a virtuous citizen is all he can do, right?”

“It’s not a question of being scared, or even of morality, it’s a question of intelligence and a sense of responsibility. Addicts usually end up in the sanatorium, swindlers in jail, while respectable or reasonable people…”

“On the run.” She helped him and looked at him.

He had to laugh. “I’ve only been running for three days,” he said, “don’t forget that. A criminal is on the run his entire life, even if he’s just rushing to his next crime. The normal person strives for stability in life. He tries to overcome exceptional circumstances, but not by making his life one enormous exceptional circumstance. No one is up to that for the long haul.”

“But an outsider can also manage to…”