human
One cannot please people, sighs Pistasch, several days after the lawn-tennis party, while, cigar between his teeth, a hat adorned with a cock's plume on the back of his head, his smoking jacket open over his broad chest, he tries to solve a difficult problem in billiards.
gpt
One cannot please people.
human
Hm! I think this sentence belonged to Solomon's _répertoire_ of phrases,
gpt
Solomon! Solomon! says Pistasch, clutching his soft golden hair.
human
Was not that the Jew in the Leopoldstadt, whose money rate was so cheap, only three per cent, _per mese_?
gpt
Do not make yourself out stupider than you are, Scirocco admonishes him.
human
We can be quite satisfied without that.
gpt
Thanks, you see one can never please people, repeats Pistasch, shrugging his shoulders in droll despair.
human
After the sacrificial meal, Mimi rejoices me with a remark upon my stiffness to the Lanzberg. I show the latter much-calumniated beauty some slight attention and accept an invitation to lawn-tennis at her house. Mimi reproaches me concerning my morals. In order to satisfy her demands I yesterday paid court to a sixteen-year-old dove; she reproaches me for my inconsequence, says with feeling, 'One does not trifle with love!'--there, it sounds as if it were a bit from a play.
gpt
Yes, it is the title of a play in which at the end some one is stabbed,
human
Thank you, Rudi; one can always learn from you,
gpt
You are the first who has discovered that--I pity you,
human
Surely not because I am weak in history and literature, says Pistasch, phlegmatically.
gpt
Bah! if one of us only knows who he is, he knows what he needs.
human
Yes, everything else would only confuse him,
gpt
Precisely, answers Pistasch, coolly. He now sits on the corner of the billiard table, both hands in his pockets, in the large room with its faded leather furniture.
human
But confess that your sister maltreats me, after I have tried so hard to please her.
gpt
Too hard, perhaps, says Scirocco, and looks gloomily at his cousin. Is the latter the only one who does not perceive that the Countess would prefer to preserve him in a cage, secure from the attacks of audacious women and mothers?
human
That might be called forcing history,
gpt
Who was Philippe Egalité?
human
A man who, in order to make himself loved by the masses, voted for the death of his cousin, the king, made himself riding trousers of the _ancien régime_, and was beheaded by the masses by way of thanks.
gpt
Ah! my historical knowledge is extensively widened--but if I only knew to whom to make love!
human
yawns Pistasch.
gpt
Really, it is not only on Mimi's and morality's account that I do not dare try it with the Lanzberg--but she is so magnificently prudish! Now I do not object to a little prudishness, that is piquant, but quite so much! Recently she, for really nothing at all----
human
Ah, really, for nothing at all?
gpt
Well, not exactly for nothing at all, the latter admits, grumblingly,
human
She is quite right,
gpt
Well, Rudi, between ourselves, it is nevertheless a little droll to think so much of this name, to boast of its spotlessness--hm!
human
The Countess begs the Baron to come to the music-room,
gpt
You are a muttonhead, Pistasch; the little banker is a hundred times cleverer than you.
human
He needs it,
gpt
Can you not be silent before him?
human
No, replies Pistasch, lazily;
gpt
I have never accustomed myself to keeping secrets; respectable people have no secrets. Besides, Lanzberg begins to be fairly unbearable, his manner has become so unsteady, so nervous; he no longer finishes a single sentence correctly, has not an opinion of his own, and crouches like a whipped dog. He makes me nervous.
human
Are you of stone, have you no heart?
gpt
I am under no obligations to Lanzberg, grumbles Pistasch, very defiantly.
human
I----
gpt
Yes, you would be ashamed to protect him a little, says Scirocco, cuttingly.
human
Recently when L---- remarked to you that you seemed to associate with Lanzberg a great deal, you replied, 'Yes, he has a pretty wife!' Really, Pistasch, at that moment, in my eyes, you stood morally lower than poor Felix.
gpt
Really, Pistasch imitates his cousin's tragic tone,
human
I think I have blundered into an educational institution! Lectures and nothing but lectures! First you, then Mimi. How you can permit yourself to compare me with a man like a 'certain Lanzberg.'
gpt
Do not talk yourself into useless heat, my dear fellow, says Scirocco, laying his hand on his shoulder.
human
At present I feel just as inclined to fight a duel with you as I should to cut my own brother's throat. Consider a little and you will come to the conclusion that you are in the wrong.