"What?"
"I have thought a great deal of myself. When I got married . . . I was seeking my own happiness. I wanted to find happiness for myself in my wife and children, for my own self . . . and hang the rest!"
"Ah, was that your idea? Well, it was a healthy idea too."
"A healthy idea, wasn't it? So you were wide of the mark, Daddy. I wanted a wife who belonged to me, children who belonged to me: all forming one great happiness for myself."
Van der Welcke wreathed himself in clouds of smoke.
"So you see, Daddy, the advice which you gave me I followed of my own accord."
"Yes, old boy, I see."
"That's so, isn't it?"
"Yes. Well, that's all right, then."
"I'm glad to have had a talk with you. But now I must talk not about myself but about something else."
"Of course. You can never talk for more than two seconds about yourself. However, you're right, I know now; and you had already followed my advice . . . of your own accord. What else did you want to talk about?"
"Daddy, I've been to Amsterdam."
"For Alex. Well, is that settled . . . about the Merchants' School?"
"Yes, he can go up for his examination. But afterwards . . ."
"Well?"
"I went to Haarlem. Near Haarlem."
"What took you there?"
"Someone sent for me."
"A patient?"
