he even beckoned eagerly to a colleague to rouse himself and come to his aid. There was some girl he particularly hoped could do something, and he kept calling, “Fini!
Hey, Fini! Where’s Fini?” The people at the windows and the door had turned towards the inside of the house, they shouted in confusion, one saw them running past
the windows, everyone was looking for Fini.
The man who was keeping Liman from driving off and whom obviously only hunger gave the courage to behave like this, could have been easily pushed away from the
door. He realized this and did not dare even to look at Liman; but Liman had already had too many unfortunate experiences on his travels not to know how important it
is in a foreign country to avoid doing anything that attracts attention, no matter how very much in the right one might be. He therefore quietly got out of the carriage
again, for the time being paid no attention to the man who was holding the door in a convulsive grip, went up to the driver, repeated his instructions, expressly added that
he was to drive away from here as fast as he could, then walked up to the man at the door of the carriage, took hold of his hand with an apparently ordinary grip, but
secretly squeezed the knuckles so hard that the man almost jumped and was forced to remove his hand from the door handle, shrieking “Fini!” which was at once a
command and an outburst of pain.
“Here she comes! Here she comes!” shouts now came from all the windows, and a laughing girl, her hands still held to her hair, which had just been dressed, her head
half bowed, came running out of the house towards the carriage. “Quick! Into the carriage! It’s pouring,” she cried, grasping Liman by the shoulders and holding her
face very close to his. “I am Fini,” she then said softly, and let her hands move caressingly along his shoulders.
They really don’t mean so badly by me, Liman said to himself smiling at the girl, too bad that I’m no longer a young fellow and don’t permit myself risky adventures.
“There must be some mistake, Miss,” he said, and turned towards his carriage; “I neither asked them to call you nor do I intend to drive off with you.” From inside the
carriage he added, “Don’t trouble yourself any further.”
But Fini had already set one foot on the step and said, her arms crossed over her breast, “Now why won’t you let me recommend a place for you to stay?”
Tired of the annoyances to which he had already been subjected, Liman leaned out to her and said, “Please don’t delay me any longer with useless questions! I am
going to a hotel and that’s all. Take your foot off the step, otherwise you may be hurt. Go ahead, driver!”
“Stop!” the girl shouted, however, and now in earnest tried to swing herself into the carriage. Liman, shaking his head, stood up and blocked all of the door with his stout
body. The girl tried to push him away, using her head and knees in the attempt, the carriage began to rock on its wretched springs, Liman had no real grip.
“And why won’t you take me with you? And why won’t you take me with you?” the girl kept repeating.
Certainly Liman would have been able to push away the girl without exerting any special force, even though she was strong, if the man in the frock coat, who had
remained silent until now as though he had been relieved by Fini, had not now, when he saw Fini waver, hurried over with a bound, supported Fini from behind and tried
to push the girl into the carriage by exerting all his strength against Liman’s still restrained efforts at defense. Sensing that he was holding back, she actually forced her
way into the carriage, pulled at the door which at the same time was slammed shut from the outside, said, as though to herself, “Well, now,” first hastily straightened her
blouse and then, more deliberately, her hair. “This is unheard of,” said Liman, who had fallen back into his seat, to the girl who was siting opposite him.