"I doubt it," said Albert glumly. "I don't think I'll ever pass
the exams for the school diploma."
He told his cousin Elsa the same next time she came to Munich.
Normally she lived in Berlin, where her father had a business.
"I'm sure you could learn enough to pass the exams, Albert,
if you tried," she said, "I know lots of boys who are much more
stupid than you are, who get through. They say you don't have
to know anything-you don't have to understand what you're
taught, just be able to repeat it in the exams."
"That's the whole trouble," said Albert. "I'm no good at
learning things by heart."
"You don't need to be good at it. Anyone can learn like a
parrot. You just don't try. And yet I always see you with a book
under your arm," added Elsa. "What is the one you're reading?"
"A book on geology."
"Geology? Rocks and things? Do you learn that?"
"No. We have hardly any science at school."
"Then why are you studying it?"
"Because I like it. Isn't that a good enough reason?"
Elsa sighed.
"You're right, of course, Albert," she said. "But it won't help
with your diploma."
Apart from books on science his only comfort was music, and
he played his violin regularly until his landlady asked him to stop.
"That wailing gets on my nerves," she said. "There's enough
noise in this house, with all the kids howling."
Albert was tempted to point out that most of the time it was she
who made them howl, but he decided it was better to say nothing.
"I must get away from here," he told Yuri, after six months
alone in Munich. "It is absurd that I should go on like this. In
the end it will turn out I have been wasting my father's money
and everyone's time. It will be better for all if I stop now."
"And then what will you do?" Yuri asked.
"I don't know. If I go to Milan I'm afraid my father will send
me back. Unless..." His eyes gleamed with a sudden idea. "Yuri,
do you know any friendly doctors?"
"I know a lot of medical students, and some of them are
friendly," said Yuri. "Doctor, no. I've never had enough money to
go to one. Why?"
"Suppose," said Albert, "that I had a nervous breakdown.
Suppose a doctor would say it's bad for me to go to school, and
I need to get right away from it?"
