Anyway, surprising as it may be, let’s say Frieda was Klamm’s mistress. But if someone is good enough for Klamm, why wouldn’t others admire her too? So Frieda became a great beauty, just like that, the kind of girl that’s needed in the bar, almost too beautiful, too powerful, soon the bar would hardly be enough for her. And sure enough, it seemed strange to people that she was still in the bar; it’s a great thing to be a bar-maid, and from that point of view her connection with Klamm seemed very credible, but if the barmaid is Klamm’s mistress, why did he leave her in the bar for so long? Why didn’t he promote her to better things? You can tell people a thousand times that there was nothing contradictory about this, that Klamm had his reasons for acting in such a way, or that some time, perhaps very soon, Frieda’s promotion would come. None of that had much effect; people get certain ideas and in the long term they won’t be persuaded other-wise, not by any arts. No one doubted that Frieda was Klamm’s lover, even those who obviously knew better were too tired to doubt it. ‘For heaven’s sake, call yourself Klamm’s lover then,’ they thought, ‘but if you really are we’ll notice by your rise in the world.’ However, no one noticed anything, and Frieda stayed in the bar as before, and was secretly very glad to stay there. But she lost face with other people, she couldn’t help noticing that, of course, she does notice things, usually even before they’ve happened. A really beauti-ful, attractive girl, once she’s become used to working in the bar, doesn’t have to employ any arts; as long as she’s beautiful she will be a barmaid, unless something especially unfortunate happens. A girl like Frieda, however, must always be anxious about her job; of course she doesn’t show it in any obvious way, she’s more likely to complain and curse the job. But in secret she keeps observing the atmosphere, so she saw how people were getting indifferent to her; it wasn’t worth looking up when Frieda came in, even the servants didn’t bother about her any more, they understandably stuck to Olga and girls like that.
And she noticed the behaviour of the landlord, and saw that she was nowhere near so indispensable any more. She couldn’t always be making up new stories about Klamm, there are limits to everything—so dear Frieda thought up something new. Who would have seen through it from the first? Well, Pepi had guessed, but unfortunately hadn’t seen right through it. Frieda decides on a scan-dal; she, Klamm’s lover, will throw herself at the first man who comes along, perhaps someone totally insignificant. That will attract attention, people will talk about that for a long time, and at last, at last they’ll remember what it means to be Klamm’s lover, what it means to cast aside that honour in the frenzy of a new love. The only difficult part was finding a suitable man with whom she could play this clever game. It couldn’t be anyone Frieda knew already, not even one of the servants, he would probably have stared at her wide-eyed and gone away, and above all he wouldn’t have taken it seriously. However much he might talk, it would have been impossible to spread the story that Frieda had been attacked by him, hadn’t been able to defend herself, and in a crazy moment had fallen for him. And if it was to be someone very insignificant, it had to be someone of whom it could credibly be believed that in spite of his blunt, inele-gant manners he longed only for Frieda, of all people, and had no greater desire than—for heaven’s sake!—to marry her. But if it was to be a low, vulgar man, if possible even lower, much lower than a servant, it should be someone who wouldn’t have every other girl mocking her, someone by whom another girl, capable of good judge-ment, might perhaps be attracted. But where would you find a man like that? Another girl might have sought him in vain for a lifetime, but Frieda’s luck brings the land surveyor to her in the bar, perhaps on the very evening when the idea first comes into her mind. The land surveyor! Yes, what was K. thinking of ? What strange ideas did he have in his head? Did he want to achieve something in particular?
A good appointment, a distinction? Did he want something of that kind? Well, then he should have gone about it differently from the start. He is nothing, it is pitiful to see his position. He is a land sur-veyor, well, perhaps that is something, he has trained at something, but if there’s nothing you can do with that training then it means nothing. And he was making claims without anything at all to sup-port them, not making them straight out, but you noticed that he was making claims of some kind, and that was provocative. Does he know that even a chambermaid is losing face if she talks to him for any length of time? And with all these special claims, he falls into the most obvious trap on the very first evening. Isn’t he ashamed of him-self ? What did he see in Frieda? He could admit it now. Could that thin, sallow creature really have appealed to him? Oh no, he didn’t even look at her, she just told him that she was Klamm’s lover, that was interesting news to him, and he was lost. But now she had to move out, now of course there was no job for her at the Castle Inn. Pepi saw her the morning before she moved out, the staff had gath-ered, everyone was curious to see the sight. And her power was still so great that they were sorry for her, all of them, even her enemies were sorry for her; so well did her calculations work out at first. It seemed unthinkable to everyone that she’d thrown herself away on a man like that, what a blow of fate, the little kitchen-maids, who of course admire any barmaid, were inconsolable. Even Pepi was moved, not even she could entirely arm herself against pity, although her attention was really elsewhere. She noticed how little sadness Frieda actually showed. After all, it was fundamentally a terrible misfortune that had befallen her, and she acted as if she were very unhappy, but that game wasn’t enough to deceive Pepi. So what kept her going? The joy of her new love, perhaps? That idea could be dismissed. What was it, then? What gave her the strength to be as coolly friendly as always, even to Pepi, who was already regarded as her successor? At the time Pepi didn’t have the leisure to think about it, she had too much to do with preparing to take up her new post. She ought really to be beginning work within a few hours, and she didn’t have a smart hairstyle yet, or an elegant dress, or fine under-wear, or a good pair of shoes. All those things had to be found within a few hours, and if she couldn’t equip herself properly it would be better not to accept the post at all, for she’d be sure to lose it again in the first half-hour. Well, she partly succeeded in her aims. She had a special talent for hairdressing; once the landlady had even sum-moned her to do her, the landlady’s, hair, the fact is that she has a very light hand, and can arrange her own wealth of hair just as she likes. There was help at hand over the dress too.
Her colleagues were still friendly with her, for it was a kind of honour to them too if a girl from their group was promoted to barmaid, and Pepi could have gained them many advantages later once she had real power. One of the girls had had a length of expensive dress material, it was her great treasure, she had often got the others to admire it, probably dreamed of using it for herself in some very fine way one day, and now that Pepi needed it she gave it up, it was so kind of her. And the two other girls were happy
