Then, scratching Keesje's head, Johannes quietly remarked, "He has grown thin."
"He has a cough," said Marjon.
At length the doorkeeper came back, with the superintendent. Johannes instantly recognized in the tall, spare gentleman, the slovenly black suit, the gold spectacles, and the bushy white hair, his old friend Dr. Cijfer.
"Whom have they come to see?" he asked.
"The new one who was brought in yesterday—working-class," said the doorkeeper.
"Violent?" asked the doctor.
"No, quiet, Doctor. But they want to take their monkey with them."
"Why so, young people?" asked Dr. Cijfer, frowning at the monkey over the top of his spectacles in a most objectionable manner, to the discomfiture of Keesje.
"Doctor Cijfer, have you forgotten me?" asked Johannes.
"Wait," said the doctor, giving him a sharp look, "are you the boy who assisted me some time ago, and then ran away? Your name, indeed, was Johannes, was it not?"