Read Online The Prisoner's Dilemma by Sean Stuart O'Connor - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sean Stuart O'Connor
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did so, her mother caught sight of her and rushed across the room, her arms outstretched.
âOh, Sophie, Sophie. Only you can save us.â
Sophie took a step into the room in alarm.
âWhat do you mean, Mama? Save you? Papa, what is this? What does she mean?â
Sophie looked towards where Herr Kant was standing by his desk but instead of meeting her eye he glanced quickly away and gazed down at his hands. He drew a deep breath. Then, slowly and in the grip of much wretched stuttering, he explained the story of his ruinous agreement with Zweig, of his insane gamble and of its terrible outcome. As he finished he turned away and spoke in a bitter, despairing gasp.
âIn short, I am due for the cost of the hides, the ship and the loss of income that Zweig has suffered. I have only one week to find the money. You saw that he came here earlier to press me for payment.â
He looked away and his chest rose and fell in heavy, anguished panting. Sophie continued to wait for an answer to her question. Her father came out of his thoughts and squared his shoulders.
âBut he came also to give me an alternative. He has put a proposition to me that â¦â Kant stopped speaking for a moment and put his hand on the surface of the desk. He seemed to stare at it now as if he had never noticed it before, but then looked up, frantic and tense, and blurted out his news.
âOh, Sophie, it is like a dagger in the heart, my dearest. He has proposed a way out that only you can fulfill. It â¦it seems he has fallen in love with you. He says he knew it from the first moment he ever set eyes on you. And he has â¦he has asked for your hand in marriage â¦and in place of a dowry he will forgive the debt. There, it is out. I have said it.â
He looked up at Sophie with his head half lowered and he smiled at her in a way she had never seen before. It was part embarrassment, part shame and, she noticed with a sick realisation, part pleading.
Never had the words of the great Prussian poet, Dieter Goehren, been more apt.
âHow narrow is the path of the human mind,â he had famously written, âthe smallest step and we cross from one side to the other.â
Sophie now took just such a step. In an instant she saw how deeply foolish she had been in her regard for Zweig and how utterly misled she had been by the blind delusion of her heart. What she had taken for careful thoughtfulness in him she now saw was simply the worst kind of low cunning. Now, too, she saw that his great and seemingly sincere courtesy was little more than an elegant arrangement of bait for the unwary. And his natural authority, that sense of command that had so intrigued and attracted her, well, it was nothing other than the need to bully and oppress. She saw him clearly now; she saw him stripped to the baseness of his motives, the fine clothes he had cloaked them in removed and discarded. Why, he was no different from any other money-grabbing trickster. Worse in fact, he was a tyrant, a monster!
âHow disgusting, Papa. What a disgusting proposal!â she cried. But, even as she did so, she saw a twisted, pleading look come into her fatherâs face. She persisted, hoping against everything she was seeing that her father would not abandon her.
âHow could he hold you to ransom like that? I donât even know him. How can he suggest such a thing â itâs despicable!â
Her parents glanced at each other and her mother took a step forward.
âBut, Sophie, my dearest, you are wrong. He is a good man. Everyone says so. A powerful man, itâs true, but good. Dearest, we are on the street if you refuse him. We shall starve. You alone can rescue us.â
Sophie took a step backwards and her hand went to her mouth, horrified to see how quickly Zweig had travelled in her motherâs opinion from someone who wished to have them finished to being a good man.
Worse to see was the way her father nodded
âOh, Sophie, Sophie. Only you can save us.â
Sophie took a step into the room in alarm.
âWhat do you mean, Mama? Save you? Papa, what is this? What does she mean?â
Sophie looked towards where Herr Kant was standing by his desk but instead of meeting her eye he glanced quickly away and gazed down at his hands. He drew a deep breath. Then, slowly and in the grip of much wretched stuttering, he explained the story of his ruinous agreement with Zweig, of his insane gamble and of its terrible outcome. As he finished he turned away and spoke in a bitter, despairing gasp.
âIn short, I am due for the cost of the hides, the ship and the loss of income that Zweig has suffered. I have only one week to find the money. You saw that he came here earlier to press me for payment.â
He looked away and his chest rose and fell in heavy, anguished panting. Sophie continued to wait for an answer to her question. Her father came out of his thoughts and squared his shoulders.
âBut he came also to give me an alternative. He has put a proposition to me that â¦â Kant stopped speaking for a moment and put his hand on the surface of the desk. He seemed to stare at it now as if he had never noticed it before, but then looked up, frantic and tense, and blurted out his news.
âOh, Sophie, it is like a dagger in the heart, my dearest. He has proposed a way out that only you can fulfill. It â¦it seems he has fallen in love with you. He says he knew it from the first moment he ever set eyes on you. And he has â¦he has asked for your hand in marriage â¦and in place of a dowry he will forgive the debt. There, it is out. I have said it.â
He looked up at Sophie with his head half lowered and he smiled at her in a way she had never seen before. It was part embarrassment, part shame and, she noticed with a sick realisation, part pleading.
Never had the words of the great Prussian poet, Dieter Goehren, been more apt.
âHow narrow is the path of the human mind,â he had famously written, âthe smallest step and we cross from one side to the other.â
Sophie now took just such a step. In an instant she saw how deeply foolish she had been in her regard for Zweig and how utterly misled she had been by the blind delusion of her heart. What she had taken for careful thoughtfulness in him she now saw was simply the worst kind of low cunning. Now, too, she saw that his great and seemingly sincere courtesy was little more than an elegant arrangement of bait for the unwary. And his natural authority, that sense of command that had so intrigued and attracted her, well, it was nothing other than the need to bully and oppress. She saw him clearly now; she saw him stripped to the baseness of his motives, the fine clothes he had cloaked them in removed and discarded. Why, he was no different from any other money-grabbing trickster. Worse in fact, he was a tyrant, a monster!
âHow disgusting, Papa. What a disgusting proposal!â she cried. But, even as she did so, she saw a twisted, pleading look come into her fatherâs face. She persisted, hoping against everything she was seeing that her father would not abandon her.
âHow could he hold you to ransom like that? I donât even know him. How can he suggest such a thing â itâs despicable!â
Her parents glanced at each other and her mother took a step forward.
âBut, Sophie, my dearest, you are wrong. He is a good man. Everyone says so. A powerful man, itâs true, but good. Dearest, we are on the street if you refuse him. We shall starve. You alone can rescue us.â
Sophie took a step backwards and her hand went to her mouth, horrified to see how quickly Zweig had travelled in her motherâs opinion from someone who wished to have them finished to being a good man.
Worse to see was the way her father nodded
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