At first they are made to wait a long while—a thing that has not befallen them before. Through the windows they see little groups of people strolling through the park, the bright splotches of ladies’ parasols, the lush green of the trimmed lawns. They wait about two hours, not saying a word to one another, in total silence, and only once does someone look in on them and offer them water.
Then they can hear amused voices and brisk steps, and suddenly the door opens. The emperor walks in. He is wearing light summer clothing, not French at all, rather peasant-like. His shirt, unbuttoned toward the top, reveals his slender neck and emphasizes the protruding lower jaw that is typical of the Habsburgs. He isn’t wearing a wig—his sparse hair is ruffled, making him look younger. Behind him come the two ladies, laughing, his elegant shepherdesses; their last humorous remarks come tumbling.
His guests rise. Jacob is unsteady, and Anusia rushes to his side to offer him support. Eva stands as though hypnotized and gazes at the emperor.
The two men, in this company of women, size each other up for just a moment. Jacob makes a low bow. Eva’s and Anusia’s dresses wither as they squat.
“Who is this my eyes behold?” says the emperor, and sits down, extending his legs before him.
“Your Imperial Majesty . . . ,” begins Jacob in a weak voice.
“I know why you are here,” says the emperor, and instantly his secretary comes in with a stack of papers. He hands Jacob a sheet and indicates several sections of it, casting only a quick glance at it himself. “Your legal and valid debts must be paid off. About a great many of them nothing can be done. Others you can extend for some time longer. Our aid to you consists in itemizing which debts are just, and which are not. On these you have been taken in, and those you ought not to pay, for the claims are unfounded. That is all we can do for you. I advise you to take better care of your interests. Dissolve the court, pay what you owe—that is my advice.”
“Your Majesty,” Jacob starts, falls silent, then adds: “Might we perhaps speak in private?”
The emperor makes an impatient gesture, and all of the women leave the room. When they sit down in the room next door at the fanciful little coffee table, Princess Kinsky orders an orgeat refreshment to be served. Before it is poured, the women hear the emperor’s raised voice from the other side of the door.
Eva collects her courage and, in a trembling voice, with her eyes glued to the floor, she says quickly, as if wanting to drown out that angry voice:
“We are asking for aid not only for ourselves, but for the whole city. Without us, Brünn empties out a great deal indeed, and Brünn’s merchants have already been complaining of low profits since we were forced to send away a part of our company.”
“I certainly sympathize with the citizens of Brünn, that they are losing guests like all of you,” Princess Kinsky answers politely. She is lovely, with a beauty similar to Eva’s—petite, with great dark eyes and luxuriant black hair.
“If the princess would speak in support of us . . . ,” Eva begins, but she can barely get the words out through her clenched teeth.
“You are overestimating my influence on the emperor. We are for pleasant, frivolous things.”
A silence falls; it is hostile and unpleasant. Eva feels drenched. Under her armpits sweat stains crop up on the silk, and this takes away what little confidence had remained to her. She feels like crying. Suddenly the door opens, and the women rise. The emperor walks out first and doesn’t even look at the ladies; his secretary goes ahead of him.
“I am sorry,” Princess Kinsky says simply, and sets out after the emperor. When they have disappeared, Eva lets out all the air she’s breathed and suddenly feels as light as a slip of paper.
Thomas von Sch?nfeld and his games
They return in silence, no one says a single word the whole way home. In the evening, Jacob does not go down into the common room at all. As usual, Zwierzchowska is with him. For dinner he asks to be brought two hard-boiled eggs and nothing else.
On the following day, he begins to send the youths back to their homes. They manage to sell the elegant coach and the porcelain right away. Smaller items are bought up in bulk by a merchant from Frankfurt. Eva avoids going into town, she is ashamed, for in every place she owes somebody something.
A month after their audience with the emperor, Thomas von Sch?nfeld appears in Brünn. He is returning from abroad and brings Lady Eva a box of chocolates. Eva wrote him several desperate letters asking for help. In each of them she made some mention of debtors’ jail.
“Problems are a part of life, just like dust is a part of a stroll,” says Thomas, when the three of them ride out of town, to Jacob’s favorite forest paths. It is lovely summer weather. The morning is refreshing; later it will no doubt get hot. It is healthy to be a little cold when you know such heat is coming.
“I am the sort of person—and this is a family trait of ours, no doubt—who always attempts to glean the good in whatever life brings,” Thomas goes on. “It is true that there were things we did not get to accomplish, but on the other hand, there were other things we did. That medicinal balm has enjoyed considerable success even here, in Vienna; I have been trying to disseminate it discreetly and only among friends and trustworthy persons.”
His chattering annoys Eva.
“Yes,” she interjects. “We all know that the income from that cannot possibly provide us even a small part of the life we have grown accustomed to, and it will certainly not keep up the whole court.”
Thomas walks a step behind Eva, and with the sharp end of a bamboo rod, he cuts the tips off the nettles.
“That is why I am telling you, in perfect sincerity”—he turns to Jacob—“that I experienced great relief when I heard that you, Lord, had recently ordered all the brothers and sisters and that parasitic riffraff to go home. That is a good sign.”
“We also got rid of a large part of our movable property,” adds Eva.
Her father says nothing.
“That is very good, that will allow us to gather together and take the next step, which I urge you, Uncle, to do.”
Only now does Jacob speak, so quietly that you have to really strain to hear him. He always does this when he is angry, it is a sort of starter violence—forcing his interlocutor to listen to him.
“We gave you the money we gathered from the brothers and sisters. You said you would increase it on the stock exchange. That you would lend it out and get back interest. Where is that money?”
“It is coming! That much is obvious.” Thomas starts to get excited. “There will be war, we know that for sure. The emperor must keep his commitments to Catherine, and she will strike in Turkey. I secured a safe conduct to provision the army in great quantities, and you know that I know everyone, every important person in Europe.”
“You said the same thing when we were bringing in alembics and retorts.”