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Even on your own showing Dollmann treated you badly discourteously, say: though you pretended not to have seen it. You want a motive to neutralize that, and induce you to revisit him in a friendly way. I supplied it, or rather I only encouraged von Brüning to supply it. 'Why revisit him, after all? said Davies. 'Oh, come 'But don't you see what a hideous fix you've put me in?
I reviewed every circumstance of that day at Bensersiel, and boiled to think how von Brüning had tricked me. He had driven to Esens himself, and read me so well that he actually offered to take me with him, and I had refused from excess of cleverness. Stay, though; if I had happened to accept he would have taken very good care that I saw nothing important.
'You are making a short stay here, then? 'As long as usual. Whether I was right or wrong in my next step I shall never know, but obeying a strong instinct, 'Memmert, I said; 'do tell me more about Memmert. We heard a good deal about it from Commander von Brüning; but 'He was discreet, I expect, said Böhme. 'He left off at the most interesting part.
Up to this point we had been masters of the situation; but here von Brüning, who alone of the three appeared to be entirely at his ease, made the retour offensif. 'Where have you been? he asked. 'Oh, rowing about since the fog cleared, said Davies.
I thought him flushed and excitable: yet, seen in a normal light, he was in some respects a pleasant surprise, the remarkable conformation of the head giving an impression of intellectual power and restless, almost insanely restless, energy. 'What need? I said. 'I have heard so much about you from Davies and Commander von Brüning that we seem to be old friends already.
And so we made the rest of the passage, von Brüning cuddled against me and the cabin-hatch, alternately shouting a jest to Davies and talking to me in a light and charming vein, with just that shade of patronage that the disparity in our ages warranted, about my time in Germany, places, people, and books I knew, and about life, especially young men's life, in England, a country he had never visited, but hoped to; I responding as well as I could, striving to meet his mood, acquit myself like a man, draw zest instead of humiliation from the irony of our position, but scarcely able to make headway against a numbing sense of defeat and incapacity.
'What's that about me? joined in von Brüning. 'I was saying that we're dying to know more about Memmert, aren't we, Davies? 'Oh, I don't know, said Davies, evidently aghast at my temerity; but I did not mind that. If he roughed my suit, so much the better; I intended to rough his.
Now, Herr Dollmann is chairman of the company. 'And I, said Dollmann, with a noisy laugh, 'must fall back on the shareholders, whose interests I have to guard. One can't be too careful in these confidential matters. 'Here's one who gives his consent, I said. 'Can't he represent the rest? 'Extorted by torture, said von Brüning. 'I retract.
It was delightful to see Davies wincing when I described my first night at Flensburg, for I had my revenge at last, and did not spare him. He bore up gallantly under my jesting, but I knew very well by his manner that he had not forgiven me my banter about the 'charming daughter'. 'You speak German well, said von Brüning. 'I have lived in Germany, said I. 'Studying for a profession, I suppose?
Having donned a bulky muffler and turned up the collar of my pea-jacket, I crossed over immediately to the up-platform, walked boldly to the booking-office, and at once sighted von Brüning yes, von Brüning in mufti; but there was no mistaking his tall athletic figure, pleasant features, and neat brown beard. He was just leaving the window, gathering up a ticket and some coins.
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