“And it’s insulting, insulting! I understand you. But⁠ ⁠… since we have spoken openly now (and it is an excellent thing that we have at last⁠—I am glad) I will own now frankly that I noticed it in them long ago, this idea. Of course the merest hint only⁠—an insinuation⁠—but why an insinuation even? How dare they? What foundation have they? If only you knew how furious I have been. Think only! Simply because a poor student, unhinged by poverty and hypochondria, on the eve of a severe delirious illness (note that), suspicious, vain, proud, who has not seen a soul to speak to for six months, in rags and in boots without soles, has to face some wretched policemen and put up with their insolence; and the unexpected debt thrust under his nose, the I.O.U.