I consider that out of the question. “We might take a special exam.”
“That needs preparation. If you do get through, what then? A student’s life isn’t any better. If you have no money, you have to work like the devil.”
“It's a bit better. But it’s rot all the same, everything they teach you.”
Kropp supports me: “How can a man take all that stuff seriously when he’s once been out here?”
“Still you must have an occupation of some sort,” insists Müller, as though he were Kantorek himself.
Albert cleans his nails with a knife. We are surprised at this delicacy. But it is merely pensiveness. He puts the knife away and continues: “That’s just it. Kat and Detering and Haie will go back to their jobs because they had them already. Himmelstoss too. But we never had any. How will we ever get used to one after this, here?”—he makes a gesture toward the front.
“We’ll want a private income, and then we’ll be able to live by ourselves in a wood,” I say, but at once feel ashamed of this absurd idea.
“But what will really happen when we go back?” wonders Müller, and even he is troubled.
Kropp gives a shrug. “I don’t know. Let’s get back first, then we’ll find out.”
86
