“Yes, Proudhon and others. I have all the new ones. Only you must not tell your Grandmother and her stupid visitors, for although I do not know who they are, I don’t think they would have anything to do with me.”
“How do you know? You have only seen me for five minutes.”
“The stag’s breed is never hidden, one sees at once that you belong to the living, not to the dead-alive, and that is the main point. The rest comes with opportunity....”
“I have a free mind, as you yourself say, and you immediately want to overpower it. Who are you that you should take upon yourself to instruct me?”
He looked at her in amazement.
“You are neither to bring me books, nor to come here again yourself,” she said, rising to go. “There is a watchman here, and he will seize you.”
“That is like the Grandmother again. It smells of the town and the Lenten oil, and I thought that you loved the wide world and freedom. Are you afraid of me, and who do you think I am?”
“A seminarist, perhaps,” she said laconically.
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, seminarists are unconventional, badly dressed, and always hungry. Go into the kitchen, and I will tell them to give you something to eat.”