No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

102
sented with overtones of vagueness: I have always
been baffled by these precautions so strict as to be
useless, and by the intensely irritating little maneuvers
surrounding them. In the end I have felt past
caring; I have laughed them away with my clowning,
or surrendered to them abjectly with a silent nod of
the head, in the attitude of defeat.
In later years I came to realize that if Flatfish had
at the time presented me with a simple statement
of the facts, there would have been no untoward
consequences. But as a result of his unnecessary precautions,
or rather, of the incomprehensible vanity
and love of appearances of the people of the world, I
was subjected to a most dismal set of experiences.
How much better things would have been if only
Flatfish had said something like this, "I'd like you
to enter a school beginning in the April term. Your
family has decided to send you a more adequate
allowance once you have entered school."
Only later did I learn that this in fact was the
situation. If I had been told that, I should probably
have done what Flatfish asked. But thanks to hia
intolerably prudent, circumlocutions manner of
speech, I only felt irritable, and this caused the whole
course of my life to be altered.
"If you do not feel like confiding your problems
to me I'm afraid there's nothing I can do for you."