Read Online Apartment in Athens by Glenway Wescott - Free Book Online

“Undernourished people almost never take their own lives,” he said. “It has been a good while since we have heard of a case. Those of our acquaintance all did it at the start, in violent imagination, before they were weakened too much in reality. It is a general rule, a platitude: hunger binds one to life. You might call it a philosophy. Stop and think how it is, even with us: we live fascinated, like animals under a spell, from meal to meal.”
    There was another platitude applicable to their situation of which he did not think: to wit, one can never tell from what direction betterment may come; what little change will mend matters, for a while. It is never too late for a little happiness even in the shadow of death; and death itself may come and go with fascination like a spell.

6.
    A T THE END OF APRIL CAPTAIN KALTER RETURNED FROM Germany, on a Monday morning. Next day, when all four Helianos' happened to be gathered in his presence, he made a formal announcement and request, with some sarcasm in his tone, not much: “May I call your attention to the fact that I have been promoted, with a gratifying citation for the work I have been doing in Athens? Hereafter, will you try to remember to call me Major Kalter?”
    Their hearts sank, realizing that a glance at his insignia should have informed them of this; they had not glanced. They were very sorry for themselves: to think that in mere near-sightedness they should have begun to give offense again, so soon!
    But the erstwhile captain, unnoticed major, did not appear to resent it especially. Nor, as it impressed them, did he feel any great gratification in his advancement. Probably, Helianos thought, this was the Prussian etiquette, cheerless and perfunctory whatever the turn of events.
    Or perhaps it was because he happened not to be in his usual good health. His naturally ruddy cheeks had a drained, faded aspect. The whites of his eyes were yellowish, the tiny veins in them irritated, as if the entire two weeks had been one sleepless night, a hundred hours without a wink. His thin straight mouth was thinner than ever but less straight, with chapped lips, chafed lips. There was an unfamiliar pitch to his voice, a pinched tone and sometimes a sudden flatness, like a leak in his throat. He had grown very thin. His uniform looked loose and his neck did not quite fill his collar.
    At first Helianos commented on this excitedly, hopefully, the matter of the thinness in particular. He wondered if it might not mean something, as to the course of the war. The great German minus ten pounds, perhaps more, in less than two weeks; the German with a hungry look like other people, the German in a decline. . .Was it possible that he had not had enough to eat in his absence? Could it have begun to be hard to get enough to eat even in great Germany? Now and then that day Helianos heaved a sigh, wanting to believe it but unable to.
    Mrs. Helianos did not approve of this kind of self-indulgence in vain speculation. Also she pointed out that the major with his healthy, indeed greedy appetite, if by any chance he had fared badly upon his journey, would have returned to them as hungry as a wolf. Whereas in fact he had lost his appetite.
    Once more Helianos set out all over Athens in search of food fit for an officer; once more painstakingly Mrs. Helianos prepared the simple soups and stews Major Kalter liked best. He only pretended to eat them, tried and failed to eat them, and sent them back to the kitchen almost untouched. Which troubled her, partly in her pride of housewifery and partly in suspense, expecting an outburst of his criticism sooner or later, when he got around to it. However, the hours passed, and days passed, without criticism.
    Mrs. Helianos' theory about it at first was the opposite of her husband’s. The major, the major! his bloodshot eyes and sallow color, his mouth turned down, so sorry for himself, and no appetite: what it looked like to her was