Scoop-Evelyn-Waugh [41]
There was one large table in the Pension dining-room. K�hen was sitting at its head, alone; she had pushed the plate away and put her coffee in its place between her bare elbows; she crouched over it, holding the cup in both hands; the saucer was full and drops of coffee formed on the bottom of the cup and splashed like tears. She did not answer when William wished her good morning. He went to the door and called across to the kitchen for his breakfast. It was five minutes in coming but still she did not speak or leave the table. Frau Dressler bustled through, on the way to her room, and returned laden with folded sheets. She spoke to K�hen gruffly in German. K�hen nodded. The cup dripped on the tablecloth. She put her hand down to hide the spot but Frau Dressler saw it and spoke again. K�hen began to cry; she, did not raise her head and the tears fell, some in the cup, some in the saucer, some on the tablecloth. William said, "K�hen...K�hen darling, what's the matter?" "I have no handkerchief." He gave her his. "What did Frau Dressler say?" "She was angry because I have made the tablecloth dirty. She said why did I not help with the washing." She dabbed her face and the tablecloth with William's handerkerchief. "I am afraid I was very disagreeable last night." "Yes, why were you like that? It had been so nice until I then. Perhaps it was the Pernod. Why were you like that,William?" "Because I love you." "I have told you you are not to say that...My husband has been away for six weeks. When be left he said he would return in a month or at the most six weeks. It is six weeks this morning. I am very worried what may have become of him....I have been with him for two years now." "K�hen, there's something I must ask you. Don't be angry. It's very important to me. Is he really your husband?" "But of course he is. It is just that he has gone away for his work." "I mean, were you married to him properly in church?" "No, not in church." "At a Government office then?" "No. You see it was not possible because of his other wife in Germany." "He has another wife then?" "Yes, in Germany, but he hates her. I am his real wife." "Does Frau Dressler know about the other wife?" "Yes, that is why she treats me so impolitely. The German consul told her after my husband had gone away. There was a question of my papers. They would not register me at the German consulate." "But you are German?" "My husband is German so I am German, but there is a difficulty with my papers. My father is Russian and I was born in Budapest." "Is your mother German?" "Polish." "Where is your father now?" "I think he went to South America to look for my mother after she went away. But why do you ask me so many questions when I am unhappy? You are worse than Frau Dressler. It is not your tablecloth. You do not have to pay if it is dirty." She left William alone at the breakfast table.
Twelve miles out of town Corker and Pigge were also at breakfast. "I never slept once," said Corker. "Not a wink, the whole night. Did you hear the lions?" "Hyenas," said Pigge. "Hyenas laugh. These were lions or wolves. Almost in the tent." They sat beside their lorry drinking soda-water and eating sardines from a tin. The cook and the cook's boy, the driver and the driver's boy, Corker's boy and Pigge's boy, were all heavily asleep in the lorry under a pile of blankets and tarpaulin. "Six black bloody servants and no breakfast," said Corker bitterly. "They were up all night making whoopee round the fire. Did you hear them?" "Of course I heard them. Singing and clapping. I believe they'd got hold of our whisky. I shouted to them to shut up and they said 'Must have fire. Many bad animals.'" "Yes, hyenas." "Lions." "We've got to get the lorry out of the mud somehow. I suppose the rest of the bunch are halfway to Laku by now." "I didn