The Tanners

“What a melancholy dream I’ve just had,” he thought as he rose from the bed. Meanwhile evening had come. He went to the window and for the first time looked down into the alleyway that lay far beneath him. Two men were just walking by, there was just barely room for the two of them to walk comfortably side by side between the high walls. They were speaking, and the sound of their words rose to his ears with a strange clarity up the walls which then carried the sound even further. The sky was a golden, deeply saturated blue that awoke an indeterminate longing. Directly opposite Simon in the house across the way, two female figures appeared and prodded him with their rather impertinent, laughing glances. He felt as if he were being touched with unclean hands. One of the figures addressed him across the alleyway without even raising her voice — it was as if the three of them were sitting together in a single room that just happened to contain a narrow band of sky: “You must be very lonely!”

“Oh, yes! But it’s lovely to be lonely!”

And he closed the window as the two women burst into laughter. What could he have discussed with them that would not have been unseemly? Today he wasn’t in the mood. The changes once again affecting his life had put him in a somber frame of mind. He drew the white curtains, lit the lamp, and went on reading the Stendhal novel that he hadn’t managed to finish reading in the countryside with Hedwig.

— 14–

After he’d read for an hour, he extinguished the lamp, opened the window, and went out of his room and then out the building’s front door to the steeply inclined street. A heavy, warm darkness received him. The old part of town was full of tiny drinking establishments, so many that a person walking along might find it difficult to choose. He took a few more steps in the lively, bustling street, then went into a bar. A small, jolly company was assembled at a round table, their focal point apparently a humorous little fellow in their midst, for everyone started laughing whenever he opened his mouth. He must have been one of those people who, whatever he happens to say, always has a comical, laugh-muscle-stimulating effect. Simon sat down at a table occupied by two young men and involuntarily listened to what they were saying. They were conversing earnestly, using many quite intelligent expressions. The subject of their discussion seemed to be a young, unhappy man whom both had apparently known quite well. But now one of them was listening without interruption as the other told his story, and Simon heard the following: