"What is Józef going to do when he leaves the technical college?" he asked unexpectedly.
"Go into an engineering business or factory, and perhaps in time become a director."
"And when he is a director?"
"He will go on working."
"What for?"
Boehme was taken aback.
"In order to be useful to himself and others," he replied.
"Well, if Ferdinand comes back he can be a director here with me; and he is already useful to others by spending seventy-eight thousand and thirty-one roubles—and certainly to himself!"
"But he does not work."
"That is true, but I work for him and for myself. I have done the work of five all my life; why shouldn't he enjoy himself? He won't do it later on; I know that by my own experience. Work is a curse; I have borne it all these years, and I have borne it well, as my fortune proves. If Ferdinand was meant to work hard, as I have done, why should God have given him the money? What will the boy get out of it if he spends his life in adding ten millions to the one I have made, and his son in adding another ten? God has created rich and poor; the rich enjoy life. I myself shall probably never enjoy it; I am too old, and I don't know how to. But why shouldn't my boy enjoy it?"