“Ah! you will return. Yes—you have your money and your goods to see to; you must count your money. We will take good care of it. Where is your money, Mr Vanderdecken?”
“That I will communicate to your daughter this forenoon, before I leave. In three weeks, at the furthest, you may expect me back.”
“Father,” said Amine, “you promised to go and see the child of the burgomaster; it is time you went.”
“Yes, yes—by-and-by—all in good time; but I must wait the pleasure of Mr Philip first: he has much to tell me before he goes.”
Philip could not help smiling when he remembered what had passed when he first summoned Mynheer Poots to the cottage; but the remembrance ended in sorrow and a clouded brow.
Amine, who knew what was passing in the minds of both her father and Philip, now brought her father’s hat, and led him to the door of the cottage; and Mynheer Poots, very much against his inclination—but never disputing the will of his daughter—was obliged to depart.
“So soon, Philip?” said Amine, returning to the room.
“Yes, Amine, immediately; but I trust to be back once more before I sail; if not, you must now have my instructions. Give me the keys.”
Philip opened the cupboard below the buffet, and the doors of the iron safe.
“There, Amine, is my money. We need not count it, as your father would propose. You see that I was right when I asserted that I had thousands of guilders. At present they are of no use to me, as I have to learn my profession. Should I return some day, they may help me to own a ship. I know not what my destiny may be.”