When he caught sight of his wife – who was, as usual, sitting by the window, busy with some virulent green knitting – there awoke in him a positive hatred which frightened even him. What do I really want of her? he asked himself. And as he could give no answer he became still angrier, and when he entered he threw the letters onto the table, which had already been laid, and said in a frighteningly soft voice – as if he were screaming soundlessly – ‘There, read what you’ve done to me!’ The woman laid down her knitting. Painstakingly, as if she herself were a government official, she opened one letter after the other. Meanwhile Inspector Eibenschütz, in hat and coat, as if prepared for instant departure, sat raging on his chair, and the more silently and conscientiously his wife read, the hotter became his rage. He observed her face. He thought he could see distinctly that his wife was assuming a hard, suffering but nevertheless malicious, expression. There were moments when she resembled her mother. He remembered his mother-in-law clearly. She lived at Sternberg, in Moravia. When he had last seen her, which was at the wedding, she had worn a grey silk dress, a kind of armour. It enclosed her shrunken and withered body up to the neck, as if to protect her from arrows and lances. She held a lorgnette in front of her eyes; when she lowered it, she resembled a knight who lets his vizor drop. His wife, too, let an invisible lorgnette, an invisible vizor, drop. After she had conscientiously read all the letters she got up and said: ‘You’re not afraid, are you? Or are you a bit frightened?’

She really is quite unconcerned about the dangers that threaten me, thought the Inspector. And he replied: ‘You really are quite unconcerned, aren’t you, about the dangers that threaten me? Why did you compel me to leave the barracks? What for? Why?’

She did not answer. She went into the kitchen and returned with two bowls of steaming soup. In silent resentment, but not without appetite, Inspector Eibenschütz ate his accustomed midday meal. It consisted of noodle soup, boiled beef and damson dumplings.

Without saying a word, he left the house and went to the office. He did not forget, however, to take the threatening letters back with him.

7