"Talk," replied Markus.
"I cannot talk! Well, well! I cannot talk! Colleague, you will perhaps take note of that. You say I cannot talk. What am I now doing?"
"Stammering," said Markus.
"Exactly—exactly! All men stammer. The doctor stammers, and I stammer, and Hegel stammers, and Kant stammers...."
"They do," said Markus.
"Mijnheer Vis, then, is the only one who can talk. Is it not so?"
"Not with you," replied Markus. "In order to talk one must have a hearer who can understand."
Dr. Cijfer smiled, and whispered, not without a shade of irony, "Take care, Colleague! You also err in dialectics." But Bommeldoos angrily shook his round head with its bulbous cheeks, and continued:
"That is to say that you consider yourself wiser than all other men? Note the reply, Colleague."
"I think myself wiser than you," said Markus. "Decide yourself whether this means wiser than all other men."