Free Group Portrait with Lady by Heinrich Böll Page A

trips, never feels shocked, merely pestered; even the most embarrassing propositions—often phrased with considerable coarseness—that are sometimes whispered in her ear arouse no indignation, she merely shakes her head. She loves wearing pretty clothes, swims, rows, plays tennis, even her sleep is not restless, and “it was a real treat to watch her enjoy her breakfast—I tell you, it was just a treat the way she ate her two fresh rolls, two slices of black bread, her soft-boiled egg, a bit of honey, and sometimes a slice of ham—and the coffee, really hot, with hot milk and sugar—I tell you, you really should’ve seen it because it was a treat—a daily treat, to watch that girl enjoy her food” (Marja van Doorn).
    She also likes going to movies, “so she could have a little cry in the dark in peace” (quotation via Marja van Doorn). A movie such as
Unshackled Hands
, for instance, makes two of her handkerchiefs so damp that Marja mistakenly assumed Leni had caught cold at the movie. A movie such as
Rasputin, Demon Lover
, leaves her completely cold, as does
The Battle Hymn of Leuthen
or
Hot Blood
. “After movies like that” (Marja van Doorn), “not only were her hankies not damp, they looked as if they had just been ironed, that’s how dry they were.”
The Girl from Fanö
, on the other hand, drew tears from her, but not quite as much as
Unshackled Hands
.
    She gets to know her brother, whom so far she has rarely seen; he is two years older than she, was only eight when he went to the boarding school where he remained for eleven years. Most of his school vacations have been utilized to further his education: trips to Italy, France, England, Austria, Spain, because hisparents were so keen on turning him into what in fact he was turned into: “a truly well-educated young man.” Again according to M.v.D., young Heinrich Gruyten’s mother regarded “her own background as too low-class,” and since she herself, brought up and educated in France by nuns, retained a certain “nervous and at times excessive sensitivity” throughout her life, we may assume her to have wanted something similar for her son. On the basis of available information she seems to have succeeded.
    We must devote a short time to this Heinrich Gruyten, who for twelve years, like a disembodied spirit; like a god almost, a blend of the young Goethe and the young Winckelmann with a touch of Novalis, lived a life apart from his family, occasionally—some four times in eleven years—making an appearance at home, and of whom all Leni knew thus far was that he “is so sweet, so terribly sweet and nice.” True, this is not much and does sound rather like her First Communion; and since not even M.v.D. has much more than Leni to say about him (“Very well educated, beautiful manners, but never proud, never”), and since Margret saw him only twice officially in 1939, when she was invited to the Gruytens’ for coffee, and once more—unofficially—in 1940, one rather chilly April night, the night before Heinrich was sent off as a tank gunner to conquer Denmark for the aforesaid German Reich, Margret, in view of Leni’s reticence and M.v.D.’s lack of knowledge, remains the sole nonclerical witness.
    This reporter feels awkward about describing the circumstances under which he obtained information on Heinrich from a woman of barely fifty who is suffering from venereal disease. All Margret’s remarks have been typed verbatim from a tape, they have not been doctored. Well, let us begin: Margret became quite ecstatic, her face (already considerably disfigured) taking on a look of childlike fervor as she started right off by saying: “Yes, I loved that man. I really did love him.” Asked whether hehad loved her too, she shook her head, not as if to say No, rather as if to express doubt, certainly not—as is attested here under oath—in any affectation of martyrdom. “Dark hair, you know, and light eyes, and—oh, I don’t