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serve.

There lay the drama of present day events in Germany, and Lanny strove to explain it to the

French workers and to such of their leaders as he met. Hitler sat in his study in Berlin, or in

Munich, or in the retreat which he had bought for himself in the mountains, and the Nazi

chieftains came to him and argued and pulled him this way and that; he thought it over, and

chose whatever course seemed to him to open the way to power. He was as slippery as an eel,

and as quick to move, and nobody could say what he was going to do until he had done it. The

one thing you could say for sure was that National Socialism was power without conscience;

you might call it the culmination of capitalism, or a degenerate form of Bolshevism—names

didn't matter, so long as you understood that it was counter-revolution.

The important question was, whether this same development was to be expected in every

country. Was the depression going to wipe out the middle classes and drive them into the arms of

demagogues? Were the workers being driven to revolt, and would their attempts be met by the

overthrow of parliaments? Were the Communists right in their seemingly crazy idea that

Fascism was a necessary stage in the breakdown of capitalism?

Apparently the question was up for answer in the land which Lanny and Irma called theirs.

The ex-service men who had gone overseas to fight for their country had come back to find the

jobs and the money in the hands of others. Now they were unemployed, many of them

starving, and they gathered in Washington demanding relief; some brought their destitute

families and swarmed upon the steps of the Capitol or camped in vacant lots beside the

Potomac. The Great Engineer fell into a panic and could think of nothing to do but turn the

army loose on them, kill four, and burn the tents and pitiful belongings of all. The "bonus men"

were driven out, a helpless rabble, no one caring where they went, so long as they stopped

bothering politicians occupied with getting re-elected.

To Lanny this appeared the same thing as the Cabinet of the Barons, seizing control of

Prussia and ruling Germany with only a few votes in the Reichstag. It was Poincaire occupying

the Ruhr for the benefit of the Comite des Forges; it was Zaharoff sending an army into Turkey

to get oil concessions. It was the same type of men all over the world. They tried to grab one

another's coal and steel and oil and gold; yet, the moment they were threatened by their wage

slaves anywhere, they got together to fight against the common peril. Do it with the army, do it

with gangsters, do it with the workers' own leaders, buying them or seducing them with titles,

honors, and applause!

Lanny could see that clearly; and it is a pleasure to the mind to discover unity in the midst of

variety. But then the thought would come to him: "My father is one of these men, and so are

his father and his brothers. My sister's father-in-law is one, and so was my wife's father, and

all the men of her family." That spoiled the pleasure in Lanny's mind.

X

Two or three weeks passed, and ambition began to stir once more in the soul of Irma Barnes

Budd. There was that splendid palace in Paris, for which she was paying over eighty thousand

francs rent per month, and nearly as much for upkeep, whether she used it or not. Now it was

autumn, one of the delightful seasons in la Ville Lumiere. The beau monde came back from the

mountains and the sea, and there were the autumn Salons, and operas and concerts and all the

things that Lanny loved; there were balls and parties, an automobile show and other displays

of luxury. The young couple set out in their car, and Sophie and her husband in theirs, and

Beauty and her husband in hers. Mr. Dingle didn't mind wherever she took him, for, strange as

it might seem, God was in Paris, and there were people there who knew Him, even in the

midst of the rout of pleasure-seeking.

Margy, Dowager Lady Eversham-Watson, came from London, bringing Nina and Rick for a

short holiday. Rick was a celebrity now, and the hostesses were after him. Also General Graf

Stubendorf was invited, in return for his hospitality, and to Lanny's surprise he accepted.

Others of the fashionable Berliners came, and it was hands across the Rhein again—but Lanny

was no longer naive, and couldn't persuade himself that this was going to keep the peace

among the great European powers. The Conference on Arms Limitation was still arguing at

Geneva, and facing complete breakdown. The statesmen and fashionable folk, even the army

men, would wine and dine one another and be the best of friends; but they would go on

piling up weapons and intriguing, each against all the others—until one day an alerte would

be sounded, and you would see them all scurrying back to their own side of the river, or

mountains, or whatever the boundary line might be.

It didn't take Irma long to become the accomplished hostess. With Emily Chattersworth and

the other ladies coaching her, she played her part with dignity and success; everybody liked

her, and the most fastidious denizens of St. Germain, le gratin, could find no fault in her. She

wasn't presuming to attempt a salon—that would take time, and perhaps might grow as it were

by accident. Meanwhile she gave elegant entertainments with no sign of skimping, at a time

when all but a few were forced to that least pardonable of improprieties.

For three years the business prophets had been telling the world that the slump was only

temporary, that prosperity was just around the corner. But apparently it was a round house.

Apparently some devil had got into the economic structure and was undermining it. In Wall

Street, at the culmination of a furious political campaign, there was a new wave of bank

failures; dividends seemed to have stopped, and now interest on bonds was stopping. Irma's

income for the third quarter of the year had fallen to less than a hundred thousand dollars.

She said to her husband: "We'll have a splurge for the rest of this lease and then go back and

crawl into our stormcellar."

He answered: "All right," and let it go at that. He knew that he couldn't change Irma's idea

that she was helping to preserve the social order by distributing money among domestic

servants, wine merchants, florists, dressmakers, and all the train that came to the side-door of

this palace—as they had come in the days of Marie Antoinette a hundred and fifty years ago.

It hadn't succeeded in saving feudalism, and Lanny doubted if it was going to save capitalism; but

there was no use upsetting anybody ahead of time!

Lanny worried because his life was too easy; he had worried about that for years—but how

could he make it hard? Even the harsh and bitter Jesse Blackless, depute de la republique

francaise, couldn't forget the fact that he owed his election to Irma's contributions, and that

sooner or later he would have to be elected again. Even Jean Longuet, man of letters as well as

Socialist editor, didn't presume to question the judgment of a wealthy young American who

brought him some drawings by a German art student. He said he would be delighted to use

them, and Trudi Schultz was made happy by a modest honorarium from Le Populaire. She had

no idea that the money came out of a contribution which Lanny had made to the war-chest of

that party organ.

XI

Hitler's program of "opposition to the last ditch" had forced the dissolution of the

Reichstag, and a new election campaign was going on. It was hard on Adolf, for he couldn't

get the money which such an effort required, and when the election took place, early in

November, it was found that he had lost nearly two million votes in three months. Johannes

Robin was greatly relieved, and wrote that it was the turning of the tide; he felt justified in his

faith in the German people, who couldn't be persuaded to entrust their affairs to a mentally

disordered person. Johannes said that the Führer's conduct since the setback showed that he

couldn't control himself and ought to be in an institution of some sort.

Two days after the German elections came those in the United States. Robbie Budd had his

faith in the American people, and he clung to it up to 7:00 p.m. on the Tuesday after the first

Monday of November 1932, but then it was completely and irremediably shattered. The Great

Engineer, Robbie's friend and idol, went down in ignominious defeat, and "that man

Roosevelt" carried all the states but six. One that he failed to carry was Robbie's home state,

and a rock-ribbed Republican could thank God for that small atom of self-respect left to

him! Adi Hitler might be a mental case, but he had the wisdom of Jove compared with

Roosevelt as Robbie saw him; a candidate who had gone on a joy-ride about the country,

promising everything to everybody—completely incompatible things such as the balancing of the

budget and a program of government expansion which would run the public debt up to figures

of the sort used by astronomers.

Both Robbie and Johannes made it a practice to send Lanny carbon copies of their letters

containing comments on public affairs. For the first time since the World War the Jewish

trader was the optimist. He repeated his favorite culinary formula, that no soup is ever eaten

as hot as it is cooked. He offered to prove his faith in the land of the pilgrims' pride by letting

Robbie buy more Budd shares for him; but Robbie wrote in the strictest confidence—typing

the letter himself—that Budd's might soon be closing down entirely; only Hoover's wise and

merciful Reconstruction Finance Corporation had kept it from having to default on its bonds.

Under the American system, four months had to elapse between Roosevelt's election and his

taking of power. Robbie thought that would be a breathing-spell, but it proved to be one of

paralysis; nothing could be done, and each side blamed the other. Herbert was sure that

Franklin wanted to see the country go to wreck in order that he might have the glory of saving

it. Anyhow, there it was, wave after wave of bank failures, and people hiding their money in

mattresses, business men buying gold because of the expected inflation, and people in Europe

who had shipped their money to America now calling it back. Seventeen million workers were

said to be without jobs—a world record!

XII

Meanwhile the deadlock in Germany continued. The Socialists had lost another big chunk of

votes to the Communists, and they hated each other more than ever. Hitler had another

interview with Hindenburg, and demanded the chancellorship, but didn't get it.

The Nazi extremists were infuriated by Hitler's "legality complex," and clamored for him to

seize power. There was another violent quarrel between the Führer and his Reich Organization

Leader Number One, Gregor Strasser; the former threatened suicide again, and the latter

threatened to resign from the party and set up a new one of his own.

Strasser began intriguing with the gentlemen of the Herren Klub, who were ready to make a

deal with anybody who could deliver votes. General von Schleicher wanted to supplant von

Papen, who was supposed to be his friend and ally; he had the bright idea of a cabinet which

would combine the extreme Junkers with the extreme Nazis—they could browbeat Hitler,

because his party was bankrupt, his paymasters had drawn the purse-strings, and he himself

was in a state of distraction. Schleicher and Strasser combined would threaten another

dissolution of the Reichstag and another election, with the certainty that without money the

Nazi vote would be cut in half. Such was the X-ray picture of German politics which

Johannes Robin sent to his trusted friends; he didn't say in so many words that both the

conspirators had come to him for funds, but he said that he hadn't got the above information

at second hand.

This deal apparently went through. When the members of the Budd family drove to Bienvenu

to spend Christmas, the "office general" was Chancellor of the German Republic, Gregor

Strasser had broken with Hitler and was being talked of for a cabinet post, and Hitler had been

browbeaten into consenting to an adjournment of the Reichstag until January.

From Connecticut and from Long Island came Christmas letters in which you could see that

the writers had labored hard to think of something cheerful to say. Irma, reading them, said to

her husband: "Maybe we'd better close up the palace and save money, so that we can take care

of my mother and your father if we have to."

"Bless your heart!" replied the prince consort. "You've hired that white elephant until April,

so you might as well ride him that long."

"But suppose they get really stuck, Lanny!"

"Robbie isn't playing the market, and I don't suppose your mother is, so they can't be broke

entirely."

Irma thought for a while, then remarked: "You know, Lanny, it's really wonderful the way

you've turned out to be right about business affairs. All the important people have been wrong,

while you've hit the nail on the head."

Said the young Pink: "It's worth going through a depression to hear that from one's wife!"

14

The Stormy Winds Do Blow

I

BACK in Paris during the month of January Lanny would receive every morning a copy of the

Berlin Vorwärts, twenty-four hours late; he would find on the front page details of the

political situation, displayed under scare headlines and accompanied by editorial exhortations.

All from the Socialist point of view, of course; but Lanny could check it by taking a stroll up

the Butte de Montmartre and hearing the comments of his deputy-uncle, based on the reading

of L'Humanité, the paper which Jaures had founded but which now was in the hands of the

Communists. This paper also had its Berlin news, set off with scare headlines and editorial

exhortations. Because L'Humanité got its stories by wire, Lanny would sometimes swallow the

antidote ahead of the poison.