‘But the big ducks haven’t moved, they can tell the difference between bread and bits of paper, Voroshilov in person, “I wanted particularly to thank you.” A few years later she comes face to face with Voroshilov, tears in her eyes, she thanks him in turn, that letter meant a great deal at a very difficult time, it was nothing, comrade, nothing out of the ordinary, oh but it was, those were very difficult days, Voroshilov has no wish to be reminded of those days in detail, but she carries on regardless, that letter was worth ten times more to me than all the gold in the whole wide world, it was the beating heart of the proletariat. Voroshilov smiles at her, she senses that he hasn’t understood, the penny drops, the letter was a sham, she cursed herself for being so gullible, Voroshilov turned on his heel, she can’t even lay the blame on her network head, he had been shot, so let’s be wary of fine feelings, even if they count for a lot, can you see yourself, in tears, on the little bridge just outside the village, holding a letter from my minister, the bastard?
‘Who was the network head shot by? Guess. As to her, she stopped doing good work, and she disappeared. I don’t want you to end up like that.’
*
When the funeral was over, collation in Grindisheim’s main hotel, Max and Lilstein have ordered tea, they have looked round for Frédérique’s daughter, haven’t located her.
‘Her mother was a very impressive girl,’ says Lilstein, ‘Hans was genuinely in love with her. She wanted to fall in love but didn’t want to make it the big thing in her life. Was she really Merken’s mistress?’
As far as Max was concerned, that was all tittle-tattle, people had it in for Madame de Valréas, for being so close to the Merkens, Huns, she’d entrusted Frédérique to them for a year at Heidelberg, La Valréas was official mistress to the great philosopher, people made the most of this to stoke up a scandal, Merken sleeping with the mother and the daughter, gossip.
At the time Frédérique scares the professor, but only when philosophy is involved, she can recite back to him an article of his, twenty pages, two hours after reading it, Max and Lilstein remember, superb intellectual equipment, very passionate tone of voice, very much at home in the 1929 Waldhaus Seminar, an idea a minute, she believed Merken was the greatest philosopher of his time, she held it against him for competing for a job with Regel, the Berlin chair, she would have preferred him to be above that sort of thing, at Waltenberg she spoke to him about reactions to the news from Berlin, on the whole people don’t care for this sort of wrangling over a job, they don’t like it to be talked about, they defend Regel who is made ill by the idea of not getting the job, they even say he’s more or less gone mad, Merken says it’s nothing to do with him, Frédérique knows that a majority of the professors prefer Regel, by appointing Merken the Minister would be ignoring this majority.
Merken doesn’t like the idea that one of his students should be so outspoken, this fuss over the job is trumped-up, and if Regel really is in as bad a way as people say it’s not because the Minister is about to do something high-handed, people like Regel have a permanent need to stand up to high-handed behaviour, it doesn’t mean they’re mad, they just like it, in fact Regel can’t say what really happened during the professors’ meeting which was held behind closed doors, that would be wrong with regard both to the institution and faculty rules, but truth still exists even if it cannot be made public, and the truth is that Regel did not come top of the list for the Berlin job, he ought by rights to have had the biggest vote but he only came second, it’s nothing to do with Merken, the fact is Regel’s friends were split, they wanted to use the ballot as a marker for another colleague, younger and more left-wing and very deserving.
It was very useful to have a junior colleague’s name put on this prestigious shortlist, yes, the result of the vote is published, but not the minutes of the discussion, not the line of argument developed by each member of the committee, so there was a third thief, the supporters of Regel split and some voted for the third thief.
One of Regel’s best friends, a political friend and holiday companion, made out a very solid case in favour of the deserving junior colleague, a member of the same union as he himself belonged to, but it was another of Regel’s best friends who felt it was his duty to report all this to Regel over the phone the moment the meeting was over, no one actually wanted to elect the young colleague, it was merely to put down a marker, so it is quite true to say that the majority was favourable to Regel, Merken knew this, he merely put his name forward as a matter of principle, so that there’d be a debate about ideas under cover of the election, but Regel’s friends split, the vote gave third place to the third thief, with Regel second and Merken heading the poll, although the majority were not for him.
Regel’s friends were happy with this first round of voting, and in the second round, the final vote, they would all unite behind the name of Regel, and Regel would be elected.
Except that faculty rules did not allow for a second ballot, there could be a second ballot only if there were more than three candidates, a first round to test the water, a second round to select three names, but there were only three candidates, therefore the first vote was the sole and final vote, rules are rules, as everyone knew, except that Regel’s friends had forgotten it in their fine haste to raise the profile of their promising young colleague, Regel was not the victim of highhanded interference by the Minister, they called the Minister on the telephone and the Minister very legally refused them permission to organise a second ballot.
It was the stupidity of Regel’s friends which made Regel lose, he was the victim of the genial goodwill of his friends.
It’s what is called a three-cornered election, it cannot be made public, because the deliberations take place behind closed doors, but that was the truth of it, and it was that which sent Regel off his head, caused him to dance a jig in public, the young woman told Merken that it won’t stop his, Merken’s, enemies laying the blame at his door, or telling him that he’d connived with the brutal way Regel was treated, no, it’s just words, people who don’t like Merken have had their words ready for a long time, whatever he might do, Merken and young Frédérique are on one of the terraces on the north side of the Waldhaus, the discussion is animated.
They are alone. Where is Frédérique’s mother this morning? Surely not with Regel? No, but she is in a shaky state too, all through today’s discussions Madame de Valréas has behaved as she used to when she suspected her daughter of stealing her bras, she has not let her out of her sight, someone must have said something to her, Merken does not like idle whispers, at the back of them there’s always somebody but never anybody, a monster, with eyes proliferating cancerously by the million, millions of viper’s tongues and one singular vocal cord, gossip-mongering, ah what misery!
Frédérique protests, is it enough to make her miserable?
‘My dear Frédérique, it’s not for philosophy to save anyone, it does not have to take over the role of Christ after retrieving it from some ancient shelf, philosophy is there to return us to nothingness, everything else, lust for life … will to shape the future … just fairy stories.’
Frédérique resists:
‘That’s no reason to let ourselves get discouraged.’
Eulogy of despondency by Professor Merken, it gives us the strength to throw the inkwell at our looking glass, Merken wishes to withdraw, to return to the lounge, Frédérique detains him, she hadn’t wanted to make the professor angry, she can’t understand all this business about despondency, Merken remains on the terrace, all thought is despondency, the moment we cease behaving like dogs we become sad.