Page:The Dial (Volume 73).djvu/220

176 strain every effort to hold one's own. Always to be on one's guard, be play-acting to a certain extent—which at his age was certainly not particularly easy, nay, was almost as hard as it might prove to turn oneself suddenly from a somewhat morose, precise, indolent old bachelor into an amiable, gallant young husband. At the beginning, of course, it might go well enough. For she certainly had a great deal of sympathy for him, even—one simply could not express it in any other way—a sort of maternal tenderness. But how long would that last? At all events no longer than the day when there would by chance appear another demonic singer, or some gloomy young doctor, or some other seductive male, whose opportunity for happiness with the pretty young woman would be all the more favourable in that she would have become more mature and experienced through her marriage.

The clock struck half past one; his customary lunch-hour was considerably past and he found this distinctly unpleasant. Stubbornly aware of his fastidiousness, he set out for the hotel. At the table reserved for the regular guests he came upon the contractor and a member of the town-council sitting in a corner over their coffee and smoking. The alderman nodded knowingly to the doctor and received him with the words:

"Well, I hear that you are to be congratulated."

"How so?" Doctor Graesler asked, almost frightened.

"Haven't you bought Doctor Frank's sanitarium?"

Doctor Graesler drew a sigh of relief. "Bought?" he repeated. "There is no question of that yet. It still depends on all sorts of things. Why, that shanty is in an awful condition. It has to be rebuilt all the way from the ground up. And our friend here"—he studied the bill-of-fare and waved his hand casually in the direction of the contractor—"is making estimates"

The contractor affirmed vehemently that he really did not want to make a thing on the business; as for the so-called damages to the building, they were perfectly easy to repair, and if the contracts were assigned without delay, the whole establishment would be ready, as bright as new, by the fifteenth of May at the latest.

Doctor Graesler shrugged his shoulders and did not fail to refer to the fact that the previous day the contractor had set the first of May as the outside limit. Moreover, everyone knew, of course, how it was with these construction jobs; the outside limit, of time as well