Brauws smiled.
“You laugh, as if it all didn’t matter!” cried Van der Welcke, angrily.
“What does anything matter?” said Brauws.
“And your old Peace?”
“Very little as yet, at any rate.... Perhaps later.... Luckily, there’s the future.”
But Van der Welcke shrugged his shoulders and demolished Peace in a few ready-made sentences: there would always be war; it was one of those Utopian ideas....
“You must come and dine one day, to meet Vreeswijck,” said Van der Welcke.
Brauws’ smile disappeared suddenly:
“No, my dear fellow, honestly....”