I lowered my eyes and waited for their reaction.

Fortunately I hadn’t claimed I’d been there in the last few weeks, because almost immediately one of them said that the Jean-Bart had closed about three years ago and that it was now a cinema.

Yes, the more I say, the more they realize that not only do I not own a car: I will never own one. “Keep quiet” is my motto, because they’ve started to keep a close eye on me and must surely be wondering what on earth moved Van Schoonbeke to allow me into his circles. If it weren’t for my brother, who gets the odd new patient through Van Schoonbeke, the whole lot of them could go straight to hell.

With each passing week it became clearer to me that, as his protégé, I was a nuisance to my friend, and that it had to stop. Then, last Wednesday, out of the blue, he asked me what I would say to representing a large Dutch firm here in Belgium. They were great entrepreneurs, for whom he had recently won an important lawsuit. I could be their representative straight away. All it required was for him to recommend me, which he would gladly do. No money was needed.

“Think about it,” was his advice. “There’s a lot of money to be made, and you’re the right man for the job.”

I thought that was rather forward of him, because I don’t think anyone can think I’m right for something unless I feel that way myself first. But still, it was decent of him to give me the opportunity to exchange my modest clerk’s clobber for a business suit, with no strings attached. His friends would automatically turn down their arrogance by fifty per cent. Those people and their paltry pennies!

So I asked him what sort of business his Dutch friends were in.

“Cheese,” my friend answered. “It’s a reliable business to be in. People have to eat after all.”

IV

On the tram back home I already felt like a completely new man.

You know I am getting on for fifty, and naturally my thirty years of servitude have left their mark on me.

Clerks are humble people, much humbler than labourers, who have earned a measure of respect through their rebelliousness and solidarity with one another. They even say that in Russia they’ve become the masters. If that’s true, I reckon they deserve it. Although apparently they’ve had to pay for it with their blood. Clerks, however, aren’t generally very specialized and are interchangeable to the point that a highly experienced employee can be booted out at the first opportunity after fifty years of service – with a kick up his loyal backside – to be replaced by someone equally qualified but cheaper.