He offered Kreisler a cigarette. A pause occurred to allow the acuter national susceptibilities to cool.
“You haven’t yet given me your opinion of Bertha. You permitted yourself a truculent flourish that evaded the question.”
“I wish to evade the question.—I told you that she has tricked you. She is very malin! She is tricking me now; or she is trying to. She will not succeed with me! ‘When you go to take a woman you should be careful not to forget your whip!’ That Nietzsche said too!”
“Are you going to give her a beating?” Tarr asked.
Kreisler laughed in a ferocious and ironical manner.
“You consider that you are being fooled, in some way, by Fräulein Lunken?”
“She would if she could. She is nothing but deceit. She is a snake. Pfui!”
“You consider her a very cunning and double-faced woman?”
Kreisler nodded sulkily.
“With the soul of a prostitute?”