"Well, and how about your university work, Fritz?"

That was a ticklish business, the youth averred. Law and political
science was no use. Every ass took that up. And since it was after all
only his purpose to pass a few years of his green youth profitably,
why he thought he'd stick to his trade and find out how to plant
cabbages properly.

"Have you started in anywhere yet?"

Oh, there was time enough. But he had been to some lectures--agronomy
and inorganic chemistry.... You have to begin with inorganic chemistry
if you want to go in for organic. And the latter was agricultural
chemistry which was what concerned him.

He made these instructive remarks with a serious air and poured down
glass after glass of Madeira. His cheeks began to glow, his heart
expanded. "But that's all piffle, Herr von Niebeldingk, ... all this
book-worm business can go to the devil.... Life--life--life--that's
the main thing!"

"What do you call life, Fritz?"

With both hands he stroked the velvety surface of his close-cropped
skull.

"Well, how am I to tell you? D'you know how I feel? As if I were
standing in front of a great, closed garden ... and I know that all
Paradise is inside ... and occasionally a strain of music floats out