She looked at him, with a smile of surprise:
“Yes,” she said. “You are quite right. You know him well.”
“Oh, we have known one another from boyhood! It is curious: he never sees the things that lie close to his hand; he does not penetrate them. He is intellectually far-sighted.”
“Yes,” she assented.
“He does not know his wife, nor his daughters, nor Jules. He does not see what they have in them. He identifies each of them by means of an image which he fixes in his mind; and he forms these images out of two prominent characteristics, which are generally a little opposed. Mrs. van Attema appears to him a woman with a heart of gold, but not very practical: so much for her; Jules, a musical genius, but an untractable boy: that settles him!”
“Yes, he does not go very deeply into character,” she said. “For there is a great deal more in Amélie....”
“And he is quite wrong about Jules,” said Quaerts. “Jules is thoroughly tractable and anything but a genius. Jules is nothing more than an exceedingly receptive boy, with a little rudimentary talent. And you ... he misconceives you too!”
“Me?”
“Entirely! Do you know what he thinks of you?”
“No.”