Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

pretty women. They are hanging on Steiner’s every word. A strange man, I cannot decide
whether he is a demagogue, a religious sectarian, or a scientist."
Alexandra smiled and nodded. So, it was Katharina, her fiend from Fiesole . How
amusing that she should have persuaded him to listen to a Theosophist!
They had barely reached the platform of the underground when the electric train moved
in with a squall of air and a deafening noise.
"Like in Paris, only more modern. There is a train every five minutes. Quick, get in, the
doors close automatically."
She jumped in and with a fierce whistle the five cars took off and vanished into the black
maw of the tunnel. The screeching wheels in the curves and the rattle of the cars drowned out
all normal conversation.
Alexandra took Konrad by his coat and with an enigmatic smile wiggled her finger
through one of its buttonholes.
"Was it nice to make love to Katharina?" she asked in Russian close to his ear.
Konrad, shocked, asked, "How do you know?" before the train screamed around
another bend in the tunnel and cut off his words.
She smiled into his eyes and gave him a kiss. He got a red face and awkwardly tried to
hold her at bay, but no one paid any attention, except for an old woman who, when she got out
at the next station, said disarmingly, "I like you two. Have a wonderful night!"
"Ach, Konrad," said Alexandra with a tentative movement of her hand when they were
back above ground, "it is written all over you, that you loved a woman. You are a changed
man. I love you," and embraced him.
"Was it Katharina?" she asked with a trace of anxiety in her voice.
"Yes," he said, "we spent a weekend together at the Kochelsee south of Munich. It was
wonderful, she is such a warm, passionate woman. You have taught me many things, but I
guess she is the first woman whom I seduced."
No further explanation, but Alexandra understood why this experience had left him
exuberant. Curiously she felt not the slightest jealousy, only an immense joy and an entirely
unexpected gratefulness towards her old friend.
Konrad shook his head. "Katharina sends you her greetings. She smiled when she said
that and asked me to give you a kiss and not to forget to do that. I do not understand you
women."
Alexandra stole her friend’s kiss from him. "I have been thinking of her, and I cannot wait
to see her."
Konrad eagerly told her of the various times he had gone out with Katharina, a visit of
the Pinakothek, a premiere-concert at which Richard Strauss conducted Gustav Mahler, and
once they had gone to a dance together.
"But you dance many times better than she does." He laughed.
So, Alexandra mused, it seems to have done us both good to explore our own ways—
and he even arrived before me. I could not have taught him what Katharina did. Now, how will I
tell him of my adventures? He has no way of suspecting Vladimir.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked.
"You do confuse me! Did I not tell you? I am taking you to the Varieté, a show at the
Wintergarten on Friedrich-Strasse, the latest entertainment imported from Paris, modified to
suit Berlin."
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