"Sure," I replied, "but you'll fall in.
I know the chap better than you.
You must bring him several times to the fire. Besides, I can't sell him something we haven't got."
"Ach, du lieber Gott, if that's all you understand," said Gottfried, shaking his head, "then you'll never get any where, baby.
That's the very first law of good business.
Come now, I'll give you a free course in modern business methods."
After lunch I went to Blumenthal.
On the way I had the feeling of a young billy-goat going to call on an old wolf.
The sun was burning on the asphalt, and with every step I felt less desire to be turned on the spit by Blumenthal.
It would be best to make short work of it.
"Herr Blumenthal," said I quickly as I entered, before he could begin, "a fair proposition from the start.
Five thousand five hundred marks you paid for the Cadillac— I'm offering you six—on condition I do actually dispose of it.
That will be settled this evening."
Blumenthal was sitting enthroned behind his desk in the act of eating an apple.
He stopped eating and looked at me a moment.
"Good," said he then, and went on eating.
I waited till he threw the core into the wastepaper basket.
"Then you are agreeable?" I asked.
"Moment." He produced a fresh apple from the drawer of his desk. "Won't you have one too?"
"Thanks, not just now." He bit into it.
"Eat lots of apples. Herr Lohkamp.
Apples prolong life.
Every day a few apples, and you never need a doctor.''
"Not even if you break an arm?"
He grinned, threw away the second core and stood up.
"Then you wouldn't break an arm."
"Sounds practical," said I and waited for what would come next.
This apple talk was suspicious to me.
Blumenthal took a box of cigars from a little cupboard and offered them to me.
They were the Coronas I knew of old.
"Do they prolong life too?" I asked.
"No, they shorten it.
That balances the apples." He blew out a cloud of smoke and looked at me with his head to one side like a meditative fowl, from below upward. "Balance, Herr Lohkamp, always balance—that's the whole secret of life."
"If you can."
He winked.
"Quite; to be able, that's the secret, of course.
We know too much, and can do too little. Because we know too much."
He laughed.
"Forgive me—after lunch I'm always a bit philosophical."
"The best time, too," said I. "Now, abo.ut the Cadillac; we balance there, too, no?"
He raised a hand.
"One second."
I lowered my head resignedly.
Blumenthal saw it and laughed.
"Not as you think.
I only meant to pay you a compliment.
Overtrumping from the start, with open cards.
That was well calculated for old Blumenthal.
Do you know what I was expecting?"
"That I would begin by offering four thousand five hundred—"