bound to take a turn." They would bet their money on it— and then, next day or next week,
stocks would be tumbling and everybody terrified.
There came a letter from Irma's uncle Joseph, one of the trustees who managed her estate. He
warned her about what was happening, and explained matters as well as he could; during the past
year her blue-chip stocks had lost another thirty points, below the lowest mark of the great
panic when she had been in New York. It appeared to be a vicious circle: the slump caused fear,
and fear caused another slump. The elections in Germany had had a bad reaction in Wall
Street; everybody decided there wouldn't be any more reparations payments. Mr. Joseph
Barnes added that there hadn't really been any for a long time, and perhaps never had been,
since the Germans first borrowed in Wall Street whatever they wished to pay. Irma didn't
understand this very well, but gave the letter to Lanny, who explained it to her—of course
from his Pink point of view.
One thing Uncle Joseph made plain: Irma must be careful how she spent money! Her answer
was obvious: she had been living on the Robins for half a year, and when she went back to
Bienvenu they would resume that ridiculously simple life. You just couldn't spend money
when you lived in a small villa; you had no place to put things, and no way to entertain on a
large scale. Lanny and his mother had lived on thirteen hundred dollars a month, whereas
Irma had been accustomed to spend fifty times that. So she had no trouble in assuring her
conscientious uncle that she would give heed to his advice. Her mother had decided not to come
to Europe that winter; she was busy cutting down the expenses of the Long Island estate. Lanny
read the letter and experienced the normal feelings of a man who learns that his mother-in-
law is not coming to visit him.
VI
Heinrich Jung called Lanny on the telephone. "Would you like to meet the Führer?" he
inquired.
"Oh, my gosh!" exclaimed Lanny, taken aback. "He wouldn't be interested in me."
"He says he would."
"What did you tell him about me?"
"I said that you were an old friend, and the patron of Kurt Meissner."
Lanny thought for a moment. "Did you tell him that I don't agree with his ideas?"
"Of course. Do you suppose he's only interested in meeting people who agree with him?"
Lanny had supposed something of the sort, but he was too polite to answer directly. Instead
he asked: "Did you say that I might become a convert?"
"I said it might be worth while to try."
"But really, Heinrich, it isn't." "You might take a chance, if he's willing."
Lanny laughed. "Of course he's an interesting man, and I'll enjoy meeting him."
"All right, come ahead."
"You're sure it won't injure your standing?"
"My standing? I went three times to visit him while he was a prisoner in the Landsberg
fortress, and he is a man who never forgets a friend."
"All right, then, when shall we go?"
"The sooner the better. He's in Berlin now, but he jumps about a lot."
"You set the time."
"Are you free this afternoon?"
"I can get free."
Heinrich called again, saying that the appointment was for four o'clock, and he would be
waiting for Lanny in front of the headquarters at three-thirty. When he was in the car and had
given the address, he began, with some signs of hesitation: "You know, American manners are not
quite the same as German. The Führer, of course, understands that you are an American—"
"I hope he won't expect me to say
"Oh, no, of course not. You will shake hands with him."
"Shall I address him as 'Er'?" Lanny had read a recent announcement of the introduction of this
custom, previously reserved for royalty. It meant speaking in the third person.
"That will not be expected of a foreigner. But it is better if one doesn't contradict him. You
know that he is under heavy pressure these days—"
"I understand." From many sources Lanny had heard that Adi was a highly excitable person;
some even called him psychopathic.
"I don't mean that you have to agree with him," the other hastened to add. "It's all right if you
just listen. He is very kind about explaining his ideas to people."
"Sure thing." Lanny kept a perfectly straight face. "I have read
sort of postscript. Five years have passed, and a lot has happened."
"Isn't it marvelous how much has come true!" exclaimed the faithful young "Aryan."
VII
The Partei- und oberster S.A. Führer, Vorsitzender der N.S.D.A.P., lived in one of those
elegant apartment houses having a uniformed doorkeeper. The Führer was a vegetarian, and
an abstainer from alcohol and tobacco, but not an ascetic as to interior decoration; on the
contrary, he thought himself an artist and enjoyed fixing up his surroundings. With the money
of Fritz Thyssen and other magnates he had bought a palace in Munich and made it over into
a showplace, the Nazi Braune Haus; also for the apartment in Berlin he had got modernistic
furniture of the utmost elegance. He lived with a married couple to take care of him, South
