"How much longer will you be?" asked Gerrit.
"Ten minutes," said Paul, lying angrily, though he was inwardly delighted to make Gerrit lose his temper.
He found a set of niello studs and links that went well with the black-striped shirt and deliberately and neatly put them into the front and cuffs.
Gerrit rose impatiently and walked up and down the room. Through the open partition-door, he saw the bathroom and was surprised to find everything tidied up, with not a drop of water anywhere.
"Do you do your wash-hand-stand yourself?" asked Gerrit, in amazement.
"Of course," said Paul, who was now getting into his shirt. "Did you think I left that to the servant? Never! She has nothing to do but empty my slop-pail. I do my tub, my basin, my soap-trays, everything myself. I have separate cloths for everything: there they are, hanging on a rail. The world is dirty enough as it is, however tidy one may be."
"In that case," said Gerrit, astounded, "you haven't been so long after all!"
"It's method," replied Paul, airily, though secretly flattered by Gerrit's remark. "When you have method, nothing takes long."
And, basking in Gerrit's praise, he rang, while pulling on his trousers, and told the maid to bring his breakfast:
"I'll only take a hurried bite," he said, amiably, just bending the points of his stand-up collar at the tips.
Then he picked out a tie, in a large Japanese box.
"By Jove, what a number of ties you have!"
"Yes, I have a lot of them," said Paul, proudly. "They're my only luxury."
And in fact, when the maid pushed back the folding-doors, revealing the sitting-room, which Paul, loathing other people's furniture, had furnished himself, in addition to his other two rooms, Gerrit was struck with the plainness of it: comfortable, but exceedingly simple.
"I adore pretty things," said Paul, "just as much as our mad Ernst. But I can't afford them: I haven't the money."
"Why, you have the same income that he has."
"Yes, but he doesn't dress. To dress yourself well is expensive."
Paul's dressing was now finished; and he had turned up the bottoms of his trousers very high, showing nearly the whole of his well-cut button-boots. He merely drank a cup of tea, ate a piece of dry bread.
"Butter's so greasy," he said, "when you've just brushed your teeth."