“Well, at all events, it is a situation which gives you the chance of seeing something of the world. But how any one can pass his whole life in an office, I can’t conceive. It would kill me. There’s Erlevoort, now—I mean your brother, Eetje.”
“You let Otto alone,” said Paul. “He has a great career before him, you shall see.”
“Yes, you know, Otto is cut out for a cabinet minister or a governor-general—at least, so his mother always says. ’Tis I alone who am the outcast of the family,” cried Etienne.
“Yes; the spoilt child, eh?” laughed Vincent “How far are you now in your studies?”
“Oh, I’m going on all right. I am not at college, you know, I am studying in the Hague.”
“Do you think it so enjoyable in the Hague, then, in July?” asked Vincent, in a tone of contempt.
“Yes; it’s not so bad.”
“How, in Heaven’s name, is it possible? You fellows are very [[93]]easily satisfied then, I must say, or rather you haven’t any idea of what the world is like. The Hague makes me sleepy and dull, there’s something drowsy in the atmosphere.”
“That’s your own doing, I dare say,” laughed Paul.
“Possibly; and maybe ’tis my fault too that I think the life you fellows lead here too soul-killing. Now what is it you are doing here, I should like to know? You are continually running about in one little circle, like a horse in a roundabout at the Kermis. Should you be in a situation, you have always exactly the same little jobs to do, and when you have done, the same little amusements await you in the evening. Great Scott! how insipid!”