When the table was laid, Peter returned home for a moment. He was going to ride out to Valkenburg with Captain Allertssohn, Janus Dousa, and other gentlemen, to inspect the fortifications before his guests appeared. As he passed through the dining-room, he waved his hand to his wife and glancing over the table, said:
“This decoration was not necessary, least of all the flowers. We expect to hold a serious consultation, and you have arranged a wedding-banquet.”
Perceiving that Maria cast down her eyes, he exclaimed kindly:
“But it can remain so for aught I care,” and left the room.
Maria stood irresolutely before her work. Bitter emotions were again beginning to stir in her mind, and she was already extending her hand defiantly towards one particularly beautiful vase, when Adrian raised his large eyes to her face, exclaiming in a tone of earnest entreaty:
“No, mother, you mustn’t do that, it looks quite too pretty.”
Maria smiled, passed her hand over the boy’s curls, took two cakes from a dish, gave them to him, and said:
“One for you, the other for Bessie; our flowers shall stay.”
Adrian hurried off with the sweet gifts, but Maria glanced over the table once more, saying:
“Peter never wants anything but what is absolutely necessary; yet that surely isn’t all, or God would have made all the birds with grey feathers.”