“I had assumed it was sentimentality.”
“Now hear this, Kator. You’re going to crap out once more, and that time I’m going to be trying all the way.”
“You are threatening me?”
“I’m telling you. And I’m telling you more. That message from Snell I gave you is bunk. I’ve got the right one, you don’t. How much are you selling your merchandise for?”
Kator started to smirk, dropped it.
“Hundred grand? Two hundred?”
“That information would hardly be useful to you.”
“Don’t worry about that part, Kator. Just worry about how you’re ever going to know if I gave you the right info. Just worry about losing your price, worry about selling worthless stuff, worry about what’ll happen to your business, to you, if you should pull a boner somebody else has to pay for. Those guys you’re selling to, are they gonna say, ‘Forget it, Kator, dear chum, we all make mistakes'?”
Kator didn’t bother to answer.
“They’re gonna send out a torpedo for you. A German if you’re in Germany, a Turk if you’re in Turkey, and Satan himself if you should be in hell when they find out.”
“I assume you have a proposition,” said Kator, and the formal words came out stiffly.
“No, Kator. You’re almost crapping out again. I’m giving you a chance to come in out of the rain. You show me your buyers, I show them the right dope. It’ll cost you half. Half of whatever you get. That’s the only way the deal is ever going to go straight. You know why, Kator? If I sell them the wrong goods, I’ll be as bad off as you, and that’s never going to happen to me, Kator.”
Kator’s success had come from the man himself; his fast mind, his unmuddled decisiveness, and his ability to dismiss his personal feelings. This made him remarkable, and he showed it now.
“Very well. I will begin my arrangements today. You may stay in this house in the meantime. Hofer will provide for your comfort.”
They looked at each other without even trying to hide their thoughts. One was out for the other, and each understood the game. And for the moment neither had anything to fear from the other.
“It is customary in your country to shake hands on an agreement. But you and I, Jesso, can do without it.”
“That’s clear.”
“Particularly since both of us cannot win, you understand?”
“I told you you’d crap out.”
“You will get your money, I will make my sale. I’m not speaking of that.”
“Just watch it, Kator.” Jesso got up.
“I’ll begin my arrangements today.”
“You can start right now. You owe me five hundred.”
When Hofer had taken Jesso to his room on the second floor of the villa and when he was about to leave, he was given a ten-dollar tip, which Jesso peeled off a roll of five hundred.
Chapter Eleven
Renette von Lohe looked as if she belonged in the place. There were no jewelry counters, just low little tables and wide chairs. The walls were of black glass and the ceiling was held up by bronze columns. The table in front of her was almost bare; just two bracelets lay there.
“Madame has hardly a choice,” said Mr. Totanus of Totanus, Dorn, and Son. “Beauty is its own absolute, madame, and if I may be permitted-“
Renette looked up and shook her head. She smiled as a hostess would smile, with very well-mannered kindness, but Mr. Totanus stopped as if he had been slapped. Renette von Lohe, who was also beautiful in the eyes of old Mr. Totanus, gave the impression that only she might decide what was absolute.
“They sparkle too much,” she said.
Her voice sounded warm, except for the way she ended a sentence. She ended it as if that were the absolute end. That can be a shock to anyone, be it Totanus trying to sell a ten-thousand-mark bracelet or someone who has long given up trying to sell anything.
“You know, Mr. Totanus,” and Renette crossed her legs so that even old Mr. Totanus began to feel excited, “I think I like something warmer. Not diamonds. I like smoke opal.”
The firm had smoke opal. The reason it had smoke opal was that during the war the volume of diamond trading had gone down to near zero and the firm had handled a number of lesser stones, even the semiprecious. But Mr. Totanus didn’t know just where the opals were.
“Madame,” he began, but then Renette put her small feet together and got ready to leave.
“I won’t have to look at them,” she said, “because I know you will pick the most beautiful ones for me. And set them square, as you did in this bracelet. Make the same kind of bracelet.” After dangling the one she meant over one finger, she dropped it back on the velvet pad so that old Mr. Totanus quivered.
Renette smiled and stood up. She did it all in one movement, then stood to pat herself into straight lines while old Mr. Totanus looked away and fussed with the mistreated bracelet. He had started to quiver again.
“Will you send it to me?” she asked, but-it was hardly a question.
Totanus rose, doing it awkwardly, because Renette hadn’t bothered to step back. This was a rotten day. Smoke opals. She could afford both of those bracelets on the table, but she wanted smoke opals.
“Shall I bill the Baron?” said Totanus when he followed Renette to the door.
“No,” she said. “Send the bill to my brother.”
Renette got into the Daimler and told the chauffeur to drive her home. She sat back in the cushions and thought what a beautiful bracelet it was going to be. Perhaps she should have let Helmut pay for it. But that was ridiculous. Then Helmut would have to go to her brother and he would pay anyway. Besides, Johannes never argued about her bills; he only argued with Helmut.
The car circled a square with a cafe on the island in the middle. Renette could see the string orchestra behind the potted trees. A cherry Torte or perhaps some mocha ice would be a wonderful thing now. There was a large clock at one end of the traffic island and it said twelve noon. Johannes must be back. She bit her lip, decided against the cafe. If Johannes was home, she did not want him to wait. No, that’s not the way it was. If Johannes was home, waiting, she would be afraid of offending him.
Now the square was gone. Renette looked into her purse for a cigarette but didn’t find one. She tapped on the glass behind the chauffeur and when he looked she made a sign as if she were smoking. The chauffeur opened the glass, gave her his pack, closed the partition again.
Renette smoked. He has a nice neck, she thought, a nice strong neck coming out of the stiff uniform collar. With a strong neck like that, and the way he sat at the wheel, it was strange how such a man can act like a-She couldn’t think of the word. Act scared, she decided. Or fluttery. It made her think of her husband, which made her laugh.
The car pulled up under the porte-cochere of the villa and Renette hoped that her brother would not be there.
She couldn’t tell by the way Hofer opened the door, but by the time she had asked him Kator came across the hall.
“Where have you been?” he said.
He wouldn’t care where she had been, but she saw he was in a foul mood.
“Are you all right?” he said, and this time she was surprised. It hadn’t been casual and yet it didn’t sound sharp.
“Thank you, Johannes, I’m fine. And how are you?”
He wasn’t listening. He led her into the library, took her gloves, and put them on a small table.
“Sit down, my dear.” He followed her to a couch. They sat, looked at each other, and then Kator smiled.
“In a way, it was good that you weren’t here,” he said. “However, it might have been just the opposite.”
