I must get up early, to clean the clothes and polish the boots. My legs are heavy, and my eyes are still very weary. But the young masters are hard when I neglect something, and cruel. But at night they are friendly and caress me as though I were a grand lady.
Only old Mr. Konrad Krause is good during the day as well. When he wants something, he speaks without humiliating me; and something in the sound of his voice makes me happy. He does not permit anything nasty to be said about me in his presence. I like him very much.
Recently I had a laugh over him. I was awoken by noise coming from the corridor outside my room. It was a conversation. I detected two voices: I missed much of what one said, for it whispered; what I caught was young and rough. One I caught without trying; clear as if it were a body. I felt that it was too fat and had wrinkles.
From the rough voice I heard: "Do you also want to go to her, father?"
From the fat voice I heard, "Go first, my son—"
When Mr. Heinz came into the room, he made a frightened sound, because I was laughing so much. And then he had to sneeze…
But I will soon forget this. I can no longer even remember when the old Mr. Konrad Krause said he liked me. That was still nicer.
I only remember that the writing-table at which he sat was already dark when I brought the tea. He asked who was in the house; I said: "No one"—and wanted to pour the tea.. But he pointed to his thigh and said: "sit down"—I said: "If I may"—and I sat down. He said: "Put the teapot on the writing-table." I did that. And then we looked at each other ardently, but I was very bashful. Suddenly he took my hand and pressed it to his stomach. He said: "Beloved."
We trembled violently.
The Family