Chapter 16 chapter Five

It pained the Senator that the grandfather did not have time to see his grandson throw himself into business life.It was around Easter this year. Thomas left school exactly when he was sixteen.For the last two years he had grown strong and had been confirmed.At his confirmation, Reverend Kolding gave him a sincere exhortation to quit drinking in lurid terms.From then on he began to wear adult clothes, which made him look more mature.Around his neck hung a gold watch-chain which his grandfather had given him, and on it was a gold medal bearing the arms of the family.A flat swamp, with a single bare willow tree standing alone, painted on the rough, uneven texture of the gold medal.As for the older seal ring set with emeralds (probably worn by an ancestor in Rostock, a well-to-do tailor), together with the large Bible, it is now taken by the Councilor. officially inherited.

Just as Christian's face grew more and more like his father's, Thomas's appearance looked exactly like his grandfather's, especially his round, tight jaw and beautifully contoured straight nose seemed to be exactly the same as his grandfather's. Made in the same.His hair was parted obliquely and combed back into two small buns, exposing his narrow temples with prominent veins underneath.The color of the hair is brownish-yellow, compared with the long eyelashes and eyebrows, it looks very pale.By the way, he always likes to give an expressive lift of one eyebrow.His words, movements and smiles are all very steady and measured.He always showed his crooked teeth when he smiled.He now approached the profession with zeal and seriousness.

It was a very grand day for him to step into business on his first day.After breakfast that day, his father took him to the company's office and introduced him to the manager, Mr. Marcus, the accountant, Mr. Hawellman, and other staff. In fact, he already knew these people very well.Then he sat on the swivel chair in front of the writing desk for the first time in his life, tirelessly doing the work of classifying, stamping and copying.In the afternoon, his father took him to several warehouses on the Trave River.These warehouses have their own names, such as "linden tree", "lion", "oak tree", "whale" and so on.In these warehouses, Thomas has long been familiar with each other, but this is the first time he has been introduced to the warehouse as a new colleague... He has devoted himself to this career, imitating his father's non-verbal attitude everywhere. Hair immersing himself in hard work.My father was always hard at work, and wrote many prayers to God in his diary; for the old shopkeeper had incurred a great deal of expenses when he died, and he had to make them up.It had become his sacred duty... One night, very late, the Consul sat in the View Room and gave his wife a detailed analysis of their present situation.

It was eleven o'clock.The children and Miss Jungmans had gone back to bed.Because the third floor has been vacated except for occasional visitors.The senator was sitting on a yellow sofa with a cigar in his mouth, casually reading the economics section of the local paper.Sitting next to her husband, the Senator's wife was bending over to embroider a piece of brocade.Her lips opened and closed slightly, counting stitches.A candelabra stood beside her on a little table, with six candles burning; the candelabra was unlit. The councilor was over forty at this time, and his face had aged significantly in recent years.His small round eyes seemed to be set more deeply than they used to be, while his cheekbones and aquiline nose were, on the contrary, more prominent.The light yellow hair seems to have been lightly powdered a little or two at the parting of the temples.The wife of the Senate was nearly forty years old at this time, but her radiant and beautiful appearance was still the same as before.Her complexion was as pale as blood, and there were a few inconspicuous freckles on her face, which did not affect her tenderness.Her pink hair was beautifully permed and glistened in the candlelight.She cast a sidelong glance at her husband with her clear blue eyes, and said to him: "My dear Jean, there is one thing I want you to think about, whether we should hire another servant... I think, We desperately need one. When I think about my parents..."

The Senator took his cigar out of his mouth and spread the newspaper on his knees, his eyes becoming intent, for it was a matter of increasing expense. "Dear Bessie," he began, drawing on his words deliberately to make the objection more agreeable. "Another servant? Since the two old men passed away, not counting Miss Jungman, there are still three maids in our family. I think..." "Well, Jean, the house is so big that sometimes I can't do anything about it. I said to Linna, 'Linna, dear boy, how long has it been since you cleaned the back room.' They, these rooms in the front also have to be neat and tidy, and they have a lot of things to do... It would be much more convenient to hire a manservant, who can send him to run errands and so on... Hire a man from the country An honest and reliable manservant is not difficult... Look, I almost forgot about it, Jean, Louis Mollendorff is about to dismiss their Anton; I see him serving very neatly ..."

"To tell you the truth," said the Consul, swaying uneasily, "I hadn't thought of that before. We rarely go to parties now, and we don't entertain very often ourselves. . . . " "Yes, but it's not my fault that we have visitors, Jean dear; you know, I'm very fond of entertaining. Sometimes your business friends come from out of town, and you keep them at home for a while." After dinner, he hasn't found a hotel yet, and he can't be asked to sleep on the street. Of course he will spend the night at our house. Sometimes a missionary will come and stay at our house for eight or nine days... Another week, Pastor Matthias It's coming from Konstadt... and a servant doesn't cost much, I think..."

"But it adds up, Bessie! We're already paying four at home, and we've got a whole lot of people in the company." "Could it be that we can't afford to hire one more person?" The wife of the Senate tilted her head to look at her husband, and said with a smile, "When I think of the servants in my natal family..." "My dear Bessie! That's your natal family. It seems I'd like to ask you, do you know anything about our family?" "You're really asking, Jean, I really don't know, I don't have any numbers..." "Well, I can tell you the details," said the Senator.He sat down on the sofa again, crossed his legs, and took a long drag on his cigarette.His eyebrows frowned a little, and he recited a series of numbers... "It's actually very simple. Before my sister got married, my father had about 900,000 marks left in his hands. Of course, the company's shares and real estate are not included. gave Frankfurt 80,000 marks as dowry, Gotthold 100,000 for settlement: 720,000 left. Then bought this house, if you count the little house we got from Alfstrasse A sum of money,... In this way, together with repairs and additional furniture, about 100,000 marks were spent, leaving 620,000 marks. At the same time, 25,000 marks were given to Frankfurt as compensation for the purchase of property; 500,000 marks were left Ninety-five thousand. If we hadn't earned another two hundred thousand in the past few years, and offset some of these expenses, our wealth would have been like this. Including the money we earned, our total wealth now is seventy-five thousand. One hundred and ninety-five thousand. From here another hundred thousand to Gotthold and two hundred and sixty-seven thousand to Frankfurt, plus a few small sums earmarked in father's will for the Holy Spirit Hospital, the Widow's Relief for Businessmen Loss of money. That leaves us with about 420,000 marks, perhaps including your 100,000 dowry. These approximate figures represent our current economic situation. Of course, the amount of property is not completely fixed, and there are always some Small ups and downs. We are not very rich, dear Bessie. And there is one more thing we can't ignore, that is, our business is small, but our expenses are not reduced. The shelf has been set up, and it is difficult to shrink. ...do you understand what I said?"

The wife of the Senate put down the work in her hand and nodded hesitantly. "Quite understanding, Jean dear," she said.Although she didn't understand every word, and she couldn't figure out why she couldn't afford to hire a servant after talking about such a large sum of money. The councilor smoked his cigar again, raised his head, exhaled the smoke, and continued: "You may be thinking that a hundred years after your parents, we can still hope for a good sum of money, and yes, it is true. But ... we can't hope too much for it. I know you It was no secret that my father had lost a considerable amount of wronged money, and that these losses were caused by Justus. Justus was an amiable man, but he was not a shrewd businessman , and bad luck. There are reports that he made several bad deals, and because of the lack of circulating capital, he had to negotiate with bankers and take out several loans. Several times, in order to protect him from risk It's going to be up to your father to come up with a pretty good deal of money for his emergency. It probably won't happen in the future, and I'm afraid it will. Forgive me for telling the truth, Bessie... I don't think as a retiree you Father's casual and optimistic attitude is very suitable for his old man, but your brother is a businessman, he should change this attitude... He is a little restless, don't you think? Your two This old man eats all food and drink, and is extravagant. I am very happy for them, as long as their financial conditions can afford it, they can live a life that can no longer be particular..."

The Senator smiled indifferently; she knew that her husband was not used to her natal family's ostentatious habits. "Stop talking," he went on, putting the butt of his cigar in the ashtray, "as for me, my only hope is that God will bless me and give me the strength to go on for a few more years, in His merciful By blessing, the company's assets can be restored to their former size... I hope you can see these things clearly, dear Bessie...!" "Jean, I'm perfectly clear!" replied the Senator hastily, having now given up the idea of ​​employing a man. "Shall we go to rest? The night is already very deep..."

A few days later, once, the councilor came back from the company, very excited, and the family discussed at the dinner table that Anton from the Mollendorf family should be hired to increase the number of people in the family.