Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

"I urgently need some new clothes and your advice. I always have to choose and pay
those things myself and have nobody who admires what I buy. Besides it will give me the
opportunity—and the excuse—to flirt shamelessly with you, and all you have to do is play the
jaded gentleman and pay afterwards!"
He disengaged his arm from hers and laughed briefly. "But you know that I never have
any money in my pocket."
"Oh, well," she said coquettishly, "I will pay you for this nicety," and slipped a hundred
mark note into his pocket.
He pulled the bill out again and looked at it. "This is a nice, crisp bank note for my
dubious services." He stuck the note back into his pocket. Shaking his head he said. "You will
rob me of my last self-esteem, but I like the idea! Where to do you want to be taken?"
She put her arm back under his and steered him into a small boutique around the
corner. "I need a new dress. So now don’t embarrass me."
Konrad put on a jaded air. "The lady needs some new clothes, would you show us some
of your dresses, maybe something lose and airy for a warm summer day."
Katharina played the coy mistress.
The sales lady assessed them discreetly and sized up Katharina. While she
disappeared in the back of the store, Konrad seated himself in a comfortable easy chair and
crossed his legs. "Shape up, you know I don’t like demure women," he growled at her below
his breath. "Besides I am richer than that lady thinks. Shh, here she comes, don’t let her know."
The sales lady held up a two-part dress with a white, ample blouse and a long, gray,
flowing skirt, suggesting, "Maybe you want to try this ensemble, so we can get an idea of what
it should be that you like."
Katharina vanished with the dress into a dressing room in back of the store. Konrad
knew that this was not the dress for her.
"Do you also carry some nice, wide-brimmed fedoras to complement the dress?" He
thought of the fun Alexandra and he had had in Berlin selecting a hat for her. The lady brought
a collection of three grandes chapeaux, feathers and all.
Katharina returned dancing and shimmying through the store. This outfit was not what
she needed, not even when he added the most fashionable of the hats. The dress was elegant
enough, but one that every woman wore these days.
Konrad, without blinking an eye, asked the lady, "Don’t you have something more
colorful, more daring, maybe with a shorter skirt?"
Well, of course, she had that too. "Maybe your wife would like one of the ethnic outfits
that are so á la mode these days."
How easy it was to make her his wife!
The saleslady laid out an entire Hungarian "peasant" outfit, a colorful embroidered
blouse, skirt, and red leather boots. "This dress will instantly transform your wife."
"Well," guffawed Konrad, "it certainly will make you into an entirely new woman. Go try it
on, Katharina, and don’t forget to kick your legs when you come back."
When she reappeared she had let her long, blond hair down and produced an imitation
Csardas for him. The skirt barely covered her pretty knees.
Then Katharina made the mistake to say: "I really like this, Konrad!"
Which was supposed to mean that she too began to enjoy this fashion show, but the
saleslady immediately seized upon the opportunity and declared, "Madame, this ensemble truly
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