“You are too fond of it to be impartial. And I don’t know how to be impartial. But tell me the good things.”
“Which shall I begin with? The satisfaction of being able, as an official, to do good to the country and the people. The fine, delightful sense of working for this country and this people; the ample hard work that fills a man’s life out here.... I’m not speaking of all the office-work of your husband, who is district secretary. But I’m speaking of later on, when he becomes an assistant-resident!”
“It will be so long before that happens!”
“Well, then, the spacious material life?”
“The white ants gnaw everything.”
“That’s a poor joke, mevrouw.”
“Very possibly, resident. Everything is out of tune with me, inside and out: my wit, my piano and my poor soul.”
“Nature, then?”
“I don’t feel it all. Nature is conquering me and devouring me.”
“Your own activities?”