Frederik found it hard to tell why.
"You have always disliked poor little Willem, haven't you?" demanded Kathrien.
"N—no——" answered Frederik. "But——"
His nervousness was very evident as he still moved fussily about the desk.
"Yes, you have," continued Kathrien calmly. "I remember how angry you were when you came back from Leyden University and found him living here. How could you help being drawn to a little blue-eyed, golden-haired baby such as he was then?—Only five years old, and such a darling! He won us all at once, except you. And in all the three years he has been here, we've only grown more and more fond of him each day. You love children—you go out of your way to pick up a child and pet it. Why do you dislike Anne Marie's little boy?"
"Oh!" cried Frederik impatiently, "he has a way of staring at people as though he had a perpetual question on his lips——"
He was interrupted by a vivid flash of lightning and a long roll of thunder.
"Oh, a little child!" said Kathrien reproachfully. "He has only kindness from everybody. Why shouldn't he look at one?"
"And then his mother!" went on Frederik, gazing into the fire, while the rain, steadily increasing with the nearer approach of thunder and lightning, blotted away the pleasant landscape outside the windows.
"Uncle and I loved Anne Marie, and we had forgiven her. Why should you blame her so bitterly? Surely she has suffered enough to expiate——"