told Jansje that there was no doubt he was suffering
from the break with his sweetheart. * No,5 she said,
* I know that look better than you do, there's some-
thing that pursues him, and, if he was older, he would
look exactly like his grandfather used to look some-
times. And if you pay attention you can see it in
Werendonk's eyes, too ; those folk have a struggle
which we know nothing about.*
But after a few weeks, when the house was
smelling of new wood and turpentine, he began
coming home late again; he said good-night
casually and had left the room so rapidly that
Werendonk, deep in his figures, hadn't even time to
answer.
Werendonk had to work late every night now.
He had got into the habit of working slowly because
his limbs were so stiff and recently, in addition, he
had noticed that his head would get muddled. At
first he had continually polished his glasses, thinking
that they were clouded over and prevented him
from seeing the figures clearly, but, even when he
had seen them correctly, he would copy them
wrongly, and he made so many mistakes in his
calculations that he sometimes laid his pen down and
waited before starting afresh. Then he got the
impression he had been thinking of something else,
what he didn't know. And he sat so long, his chin
on his hand, staring in front of him, that he was
startled when the clock struck. More than once