Practically minded as Berthold Bryller was in certain ways, he was able to cast his weaknesses in common human terms, so that the despair, which at first had revealed itself in hysterical attacks of a special kind, soon gave way—­except in rare conditions—­to a feeling of lofty indifference.  He still wrote his impudent and careless letters, which did him considerable harm; he published particularly clever, slightly demented essays in the few journals with whose editors he didn’t happen to be quarreling with; he founded both clubs which then expelled him, and periodicals in which he was attacked.  Everywhere, and in other ways, he continued to make himself impossible even by his very presence.  The uninitiated might interpret his absence from the Café Klößchen as a sign of his inward transformation, if it were not for a poster fixed to the door of the Cafe: 

  No admittance to Bryller!

which suggested that an argument with the manager was the reason for his absence.

But gradually the hopelessness of his literary existence became inescapable to Doctor Bryller, who was certainly no idiot.  In addition, his funds for the foreseeable future were exhausted.  So, incapable of killing himself if it were to become necessary, he had to focus his energy on working to earn a living.  His writing activity was financially unsuccessful.  He would not have the heart to take a permanent literary job—­something like an editorship—­aside from the fact that no one would take him.  What other option did he have but to use the rest of his money to continue his interrupted university training, take the necessary state examinations, and then find himself a secure and pleasant position as a senior teacher.  In point of fact, this profession seemed thoroughly comfortable to him.  Convinced of the incorrigibility of human imperfection, which he had experienced first hand, and utterly convinced of the complete uselessness of physical and intellectual striving, he gladly gave free rein to any and all base impulse.  He could satisfy his cravings for power, his other ambitions, even his erotic needs, most readily as a senior teacher.

Despite his moodiness and frequent peculiar behaviour, Doctor Bryller was one of the most popular teachers at the Horror High School.  The small pupils idolized him, the bigger ones clung to him passionately.  Of course there also were pupils who didn’t like him.  For example, the second-year pupil Max Mechenmal whose face he had slapped a few times without obvious reason.  This could have had the most unpleasant consequences for Doctor Berthold Bryller.  On the occasion of the teacher meeting called by director Rudolf Richter after the highly indignant complaint of the pupil, a large majority of the colleagues, unlike the pupils, turned out to have unfriendly feelings for the Doctor.  When he, questioned about why he had pupil, smilingly replied that Mechenmal displeased him, they wanted to recommend to the authorities,