another... On a soft evening, full of greenish yellow street-lights,
full of umbrellas and street filth, stood a small, hunch-backed man
anxiously waiting at the entrance of an acting school.



III


Sometimes a poisonous, searing wind arose. Like thick, glowing oil,
the sun lay on the houses and on the streets and on the people, Small,
sexless little people with bent legs hopped senselessly around the
front garden, enclosed by an iron fence, of the Cafe Kloesschen.
Inside, Kuno Kohn and Gottschalk Schulz were fighting. Others
happened to be watching. Lisel Liblichlein sat apprehensively in a
corner.

The reason for this had been: Mr Kohn had accompanied Miss
Liblichlein from the acting school to her home several times. When
Schulz learned about it, he became, without cause, jealous. He began
to say terrible things about Kohn. Lisel Liblichlein, who saw
through her cousin, defended the hunchback. This made Schulz even
angrier. He declared convincingly that he would shoot himself. He
didn't do that, but threatened that he would shoot her too. At that
point she stopped seeing him.--Lisel Liblichlein needed a man with
whom she could discuss her important, ordinary experiences. After
the quarrel with Schulz she chose Kohn out of some vague instinct.
Thus it happened that she made an appointment to meet him at the
Kloesschen at noon on the day of the fight, in order perhaps to
consult with him about choosing a dress, or about his interpretation