THE TWILIGHT OF THE SOULS
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straight and removed every trace of Gerrit's visit:
"There, I let myself be persuaded into talking!" thought Paul, irritably. "But d'you think the chap grasped it and valued it for a moment? Of course he didn't: not what I said of the old and not what I said of the new ideas! . . . It's not worth while taking the trouble to be a brilliant talker. . . . The world is dirty and stupid . . . and Gerrit is stupid also, with his nine children, and dirty, with those cigars of his . . . and besides he's a melancholy beggar, who has his manias . . . just as Ernst has . . . and I . . . and everybody. . . ."
And he flung himself angrily on his cushions and read his modern novel, all day long, without so much as stirring. . .
