Every time an idiotic publisher refused to publish one of his manuscripts, Oskar Serti went home, feeling the need to be on his own. Before shutting himself away for many hours in his study, he angrily wiped his feet on the mat to get rid of all the dirt of the outside world.
On March 3 1934, on his way to see a small provincial publisher, Serti suddenly felt so completely incapable of surviving yet another refusal that he turned back before having dealt with the meeting. On arriving home, as if to better rid himself of the cloying feeling of his own cowardice, he took off his shoes and wiped his bare feet forcefully against the harsh strands of the doormat.
Unfortunately, he was so much in the habit of scraping off all forms of dirt onto the doormat, that when he saw dark reddish streaks appear beneath his feet, he could not stop himself from rubbing them more and more.