“End?...” He frowned at her through his spectacles. “You mean what was my purpose?”
“Yes. Were you fitting yourself for any particular work?”
“No.”
“Merely piling up knowledge for the sake of piling up knowledge.”
“You speak,” he said, “as if you were reprehensible.”
She made no direct reply, but asked his age.
“Twenty-six,” he said.
“Nine years of which you have spent in doing nothing but study; cramming yourself with learning.... What in the world were you going to do with all of it?”
“That,” he said, “is a matter I have had little time to consider.”
“Did you make any friends in college?”