‘Yes,’ he declared without looking at anyone, ‘it’s a great misfortune to have spent five years or so in the country far removed from great minds! In a flash you become a perfect fool. You try not to forget what you’ve been taught and then—just like that!—it turns out everything you’ve been taught is nonsense and you’re told sensible people don’t concern themselves with such rubbish any more and that you’re, so to speak, old hat. What’s to be done! Evidently the young are more intelligent than we are, that’s a fact.’ Pavel Petrovich slowly turned on his heels and slowly walked away. Nikolai
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