Note 4 — Chapter VI · THE SWALLOW AND THE SPARROW
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Instructed by experience, I know what it would cost me to grant the hospitality demanded so persistently. If I were to leave some precious book open on the table, some drawing of a mushroom, my morning’s work and still quite fresh from the brush,4 he would not fail, in passing, to drop his muddy seal or his stercoral initials upon it. These little annoyances have made me suspicious; and I remain obdurate to all my visitor’s importunities.