BELGIUM: Dreams

Neither his wife nor his son nor his employers knew what dreams whirled in the head of Maxime Formartin. Perhaps—unlike Thurber's elaborately dreaming Walter Mitty—Maxime himself did know. He was a lowly handyman, chauffeur and clerk for the firm of A. Freyman & Van Loo, Antwerp shippers. Long years of faithful service had brought him one occasional pleasure and privilege: going to the bank to draw some of the firm's money for import duties.

One day last week Maxime Formartin went to the bank, drew out 485,000 Belgian francs ($9,700) of his employers' money in crackling banknotes, and with...

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