Publisher's Synopsis
Van der Welcke woke that morning from a long, sound sleep and stretched himself luxuriously in the warmth of the sheets. But suddenly he remembered what he had been dreaming; and, as he did so, he gazed into the wardrobe-glass, in which he could just see himself from his pillow. A smile began to flicker about his curly moustache; his blue eyes lit up with merriment. The sheets, which still covered his body-he had flung his arms above his head-rose and fell with the ripple of his silent chuckles; and suddenly, irrepressibly, he burst into a loud guffaw: "Addie!" he shouted, roaring with laughter. "Addie, are you up?... Addie, come here for a minute!" The door between the two rooms opened; Addie entered. "Addie!... Just imagine ... just imagine what I've been dreaming. It was at the seaside-Ostende or Scheveningen or somewhere-and everybody, everybody was going about ... half-naked ... their legs bare... and the rest beautifully dressed. The men had coloured shirts and light jackets and exquisite ties and straw hats, gloves and a stick in their hands
