A sudden noise behind him made him start and turn around. And behold, from behind the last bench rose the head and shoulders of Kai, Count Mölln. He crawled out, did this young man, got up, shook himself, slapped his hands together to get the dust off, and came up to Hanno with a beaming face.
“Oh, it’s you, Hanno,” he said. “And I crawled back there because I took you for a piece of the faculty when you came in.”
His voice cracked as he spoke, because it was changing, which Hanno’s had not yet begun to do. He had kept pace with Hanno in his growth, but his looks had not altered, and he still wore a dingy suit of no particular colour, with a button or so missing and a big patch in the seat. His hands, too, were not quite clean; narrow and aristocratic-looking though they were, with long, slender fingers and tapering nails. But his brow was still pure as alabaster beneath the carelessly parted reddish-yellow hair that fell over it, and the glance of the sparkling blue eyes was as keen and as profound as ever. In fact, the contrast was even more striking between his neglected toilette and the racial purity of his face, with its delicate bony structure, slightly aquiline nose, and short upper lip, upon which the down was beginning to show.
“Oh, Kai,” said Hanno, with a wry face, putting his hand to his heart. “How can you frighten me like that? What are you doing up here? Why are you hiding? Did you come late too?”
“Dear me, no,” Kai said. “I’ve been here a long time. Though one doesn’t much look forward to getting back to the old place, when Monday morning comes round. You must know that yourself, old fellow. No, I only stopped up here to have a little game. The deep one seems to be able to reconcile it with his religion to hunt people down to prayers. Well, I get behind him, and I manage to keep close behind his back whichever way he turns, the old mystic! So in the end he goes off, and I can stop up here. But what about you?” he said sympathetically, sitting down beside Hanno on the bench. “You had to run, didn’t you? Poor old chap! You look perfectly worn out. Your hair is sticking to your forehead.” He took a ruler from the table and carefully combed little Johann’s hair with it. “You overslept, didn’t you? Look,” he interrupted himself, “here I am sitting in the sacred seat of number one—Adolf Todtenhaupt’s place! Well, it won’t hurt me for once, I suppose. You overslept, didn’t you?”
Hanno had put his head down on his arms again. “I was at the opera last night,” he said, heaving a long sigh.
“Right—I’d forgot that. Well, was it beautiful?”
He got no answer.
“You are a lucky fellow, after all,” went on Kai perseveringly. “I’ve never been in the theatre, not a single time in my whole life, and there isn’t the smallest prospect of my going—at least, not for years.”
“If only one did not have to pay for it afterwards,” said Hanno gloomily.
“The headache next morning—well, I know how that feels, anyhow.” Kai stooped and picked up his friend’s coat and hat, which lay on the floor beside the bench, and carried them quietly out into the corridor.
“Then I take for granted you haven’t done the verses from the Metamorphoses?” he asked as he came back.
“No,” said Hanno.
“Have you prepared for the geography test?”
“I haven’t done anything, and I don’t know anything,” said Hanno.
“Not the chemistry nor the English, either? Benissimo! Then there’s a pair of us—brothers-in-arms,” said Kai, with obvious gratification. “I’m in exactly the same boat,” he announced jauntily. “I did no work Saturday, because the next day was Sunday; and I did no work on Sunday, because it was Sunday! No, nonsense, it was mostly because I’d something better to do.” He spoke with sudden earnestness, and a slight flush spread over his face. “Yes, perhaps it may be rather lively today, Hanno.”
“If I get only one more bad mark, I shan’t go up,” said Johann; “and I’m sure to get it when I’m called up for Latin. The letter B comes next, Kai, so there’s not much help for it.”
“We shall see: What does Caesar say? ‘Dangers may threaten me in the rear; but when they see the front of Caesar—’ ” But Kai did not finish. He was feeling rather out of sorts himself; he went to the platform and sat down in the master’s chair, where he began to rock back and forth, scowling. Hanno still sat with his forehead resting on his arms. So they remained for a while in silence.
Then, somewhere in the distance, a dull humming was heard, which quickly swelled to a tumult of voices, approaching, imminent.
“The mob,” said Kai, in an exasperated tone. “Goodness, how fast they got through. They haven’t taken up ten minutes of the period!”
He got down from the platform and went to the door to mingle with the incoming stream. Hanno, for his part, lifted up his head for a minute, screwed up his mouth, and remained seated.
Stamping, shuffling, with a confusion of masculine voices, treble and falsetto, they flooded up the steps and over the corridor. The classroom suddenly became full of noise and movement. This was the lower second form of the Realschule, some twenty-five strong, comrades of
