In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

394 CODES COLLAPSED
to historical change? The narrative suggests that Cornelius has an interest
in good-looking young men, particularly in his servant Xaver Kleinsgiitl-described
as "hatless in all types of weather, wearing a long shirt
jauntily adorned with a leather belt" (491) [see Stars]-and in an engineering
student named Max Hergesell, whom the professor's teenaged
children have invited to a dance party: "A young man sporting a good
deal of white shirt-front and a little black string-tie ... Pretty as a
picture, with his dark hair and rosy cheeks-shaved, naturally, but showing
a hint of whiskers" (p. 505). [see Engineers, Gramophones] While
the professor takes a walk, to escape the noisy house and plan his next
lecture, Hergesell, trying to please his hosts, dances with little Lorchen.
By the time Cornelius returns, she has become so wrought up with
childish love for the young man that, although it is long past her bedtime,
she cannot fall asleep; she is sobbing into her pillow, with two nurses
standing by helplessly. Only Kleinsgiitl understands this situation. He
asks Hergesell to come to the nursery, and the narrator remarks that the
father is almost as impressed by the young man's appearance as his
daughter is: "Max Hergesell draws near Lorchen's crib, wearing his
evening jacket, with his hint of whiskers and his charming dark eyes,
obviously happy to be playing the role of swan knight and fairy-tale
prince, as if saying: 'Here I am! Now all desires are fulfilled and all tears
will cease!' Cornelius is moved nearly as much as Lorchen herself" (520).
Without knowing it, he is doubly jealous and doubly pleased: jealous of
Lorchen's childish infatuation with Hergesell and of Hergesell's friendly
gesture toward Lorchen; pleased with Hergesell's impressive appearance
and with his calming influence on the suffering child. The professor is
filled, briefly, with a strange ambivalence: "Young Hergesell leans over
the bars of the crib and chatters away, more for the father's ear than the
child's, but Lorchen does not know this-and the father's feelings toward
him are an extraordinary mixture of gratitude, embarrassment, and
hatred" (521). Moments later, the world returns to its fragile state of
order. Cornelius has persuaded himself that the distance which Lorchen,
in her sleep, is taking from Hergesell is comparable to his own distance
from the young man: "What a good thing," he says to himself, "that she
sinks deeper into forgetfulness with every breath! That for children the
night that separates one day from the next is like an abyss! Surely, by
tomorrow young Hergesell will be a mere dream, unable to cast gloom
over her little heart" (522).