Read Online The Vienna Melody by Ernst Lothar, Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood - Free Book Online

out a great many things.
    â€œWhat do you think of our house? It’s a sort of monkey house, isn’t it?” “Do you think you’ll have such a pair of rascals as these two here?” “And what do you think of Brother Franz?” “Is it true your father is going to be named to the Upper Chamber?”
    All well-meant questions, but hard to answer.
    Next came Franz’s widowed aunt, the former Miss Kubelka, in Apartment 3 on the mezzanine, where it smelled of burned milk. They waited for a long time to see the daughter of the house, Anna, who had just taken their pug out. On the point of leaving, and indeed already at the door, the couple met her. She was dressed all in black, as though she had just come from a funeral, and her attention was centered entirely on the dog. As she removed his leash and muzzle she said, “Good little doggie. Such a good little doggie. Strulli did all his business.”
    The pug, who must have been quite aged, because he waddled so and every movement made him pant, did not allow himself to be petted. But the former Miss Kubelka, an old woman going, on eighty, who was tiny and not quite clear in her head, made every effort to retain her visitors. First she attempted to do so by giving them coffee, but the milk was scorched. Then there was Anna, who did not come for so long. Now she turned to the dog, trying to make him interesting, but he refused to be petted. In the back of her mind there was only one thought:
These two will go downstairs to Sophie, and Sophie will say mean things about me!
    â€œAllow me to introduce you to my fiancée,” Franz had said to his cousin Anna. The erstwhile Countess Hegéssy nodded with a stony expression. What her face may have looked like earlier in her history was hardly to be guessed at. Now it was completely blank. “I trust you will be happy,” was all she said.
    To live one’s life out in this house! The thought was like a cord around Henriette’s throat as they went downstairs to make their last call. She was not used to a family, for she had lived alone with her father for years. Professor Stein had no family, or at least he acted that way. In any case, she could not remember ever hearing of grandparents, of an uncle or an aunt on her father’s side. As for her mother, she had always been told that her maiden name was Aufreiter, that she came from Goricia, and that she was the daughter of a landowner. But no one had even so much as seen this landowner or his relatives.
    â€œAnna has had a lot of bad luck,” Franz explained.
    â€œYou can see that from her appearance. She has behind her what is now confronting your sister Gretl, hasn’t she?”
    Franz shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t seen Cousin Hegéssy in an age. But if you ask me, Gretl has been through more. The count at least ticked Anna right off, nearly twenty-five years ago. But Gretl has been obliged, for at least that time, to watch the colonel, whom you are so sorry for, carry on with all his rascality. That is much worse.”
    â€œExtraordinary!” Henriette said. “And all under the same roof.”
    At which old Poldi opened the door to them at Apartment Number 2 on the ground floor.
    Sophie was arrayed in her best finery that day. From the parting in her white hair to the tips of her shoes she gave an impression of impeccable neatness, and one could offer her no more pleasing compliment than to remark on a certain likeness which undoubtedly existed.
    Henriette gave her this pleasure. “You are the image of Countess Festetics!” she exclaimed, thereby comparing her to the first lady-in-waiting to the Empress.
    â€œDid he tell you that I like to be told that?” the old lady asked as she extended her hand for the girl to kiss. “Where does it come from—Paris?” was her immediate inquiry as soon as they were settled in the tapestry armchairs which commanded a view of