CHAPTER V.
GIRLS AMONG THEMSELVES
Panic prevailed in Lona’s house, in the Gumpendorferstrasse. Eight young ladies, all superlatively beautiful, had already gathered there, and still the stout housekeeper, Frau Kathi Schoberlechner, had to open the door again and again to let in new arrivals.
The drawing-room was permeated with a strong aroma of Houbigant, Ambre, Coty Rouge, and cigarettes; golden, red, chestnut and dusky heads, diamonds and pearls shone and glittered. All were dressed in silks and laces, only Lona wore a fragrant negligée, open in front so that her snow-white bosom almost burst forth; and her stockingless feet were encased in little red mules.
Black-haired Yvonne wept as if her heart would break, while red-headed Margit pounded on the table and cried angrily:
“We got to protes’! If I ever get hold o’ one o’ them dep’ties, I’ll scratch ’is eyes out for ’im!”
“Wotta dirty trick! W’at they expec’ us to do w’en they throw out the Jews?”
Yvonne wept more passionately. “An’ jus’ now, w’en Fredi Pollak jus’ ordered a new car for me.”
“I’m gettin’ ten million a month from Reizes, w’at I been goin’ with fer two weeks. I’d like to know if them Christian gents’ll be so free with their money?”
“Y’know, I got that Zwitterbauch from Mährisch-Ostrau, w’at keeps me altogether, and comes to Vienna on’y for a week outa ev’ry month!”
A voluptuous golden-haired Juno crossed her beautiful though rather thick-set legs so that her blue silk garters peeped out, drank a little glass of cointreau, and said in a resonant alto:
“Children, I think I’ve had more experience than all the rest of you put together. And all I can say is that after the Jews are gone we’ll either have to starve or look around for jobs as cloak-room maids in the cafés. Only the Jews leave money behind ’em--the rest of ’em all want a lot of loving and no expense! I went with Baron Stummerl, of the Foreign Office, for ten years--and in those ten years he gave me a gold bracelet, a fur neckpiece, and a thousand gulden. I was lucky I had Herschmann of the Anglobank at the same time, or I might actually have had to go to work. Since then I’ve gone in for Jews only!”
Nervously Claire toyed with the diamond-studded gold cross she wore on a platinum chain. “Wonder what Karl’ll say when I stop gettin’ things from Dr. Baruch!”
New plaints arose, wails filled the air. In the excitement of recent events they had not thought of this: What would become of the friends they loved and supported, after the friends who paid would be gone?
Just then Frau Kathi ushered in one of these friends.--Pepi represented the ideal of the well-dressed man. Impeccable from his soft gray velvet hat and his hand-knit tie to his tan oxfords and the dark blue silk socks.
Sobbing, the charming black-haired Yvonne fell into the arms of her beloved. All greeted him noisily,--he was pelted with a shower of calls and questions. Calmly Pepi sank back into an armchair, took Yvonne on his knee, pinched the naked calves of Lona, (who sat beside him), and, after permitting the girls to put a cigarette into his mouth, observed:
“There’s nothing to do, my dears, but leave the country, too!”
“Yes,” countered clever, golden-haired Carola, “but where’ll you get your passport, and who’ll let you in?”
“Very simple,” laughed Pepi. “Tomorrow I’ll go to the City Hall, and renounce all religious affiliations. The day after I go to the Jewish synagogue, assure the Hebrew race of my staunch support, and become a Jew--without the operation, I hope. Then we’ll get married, take the money that’s coming to us from the government, and settle down somewhere else, as provided by the League of Nations. We’ll go to Paris, or Brussels, or some other place where things are lively.”
Yvonne laughed through her tears. “Go on! What’ll I do in Paris after I’m married?”
“Silly! No one’ll have to know we’re married! You rent a flat, find a friend who’ll keep you, and I’ll take care of your heart as always.”
During the next few days the liberal papers reported that hundreds of valiant Christian youths, indignant at the injustice done the Jews, had demonstratively determined on their conversion to the Jewish faith, that they might share the fate of the sorely tried people of Israel.