“One learns obedience in your house, but when my preserver comes home, bring him here. He must tell me about the English riders. There comes Frau Babetta with his decoction. You shall see that I take it punctually.”
The boy returned home late, for he had enjoyed all the glories of the fair with the doctor’s children. He was permitted to pay only a short visit to Henrica, and did not see his father at all, the latter having gone to a night council at Herr Van Bronkhorst’s.
The next morning the fair holidays were to end, school would begin and Adrian had intended to finish his tasks this evening; but the visit to the English riders had interfered, and he could not possibly appear before the rector without his exercise. He frankly told Maria so, and she cleared a place for him at the table where she was sewing, and helped the young scholar with many a word and rule she had learned with her dead brother.
When it lacked only half an hour of midnight, Barbara entered, saying:
“That’s enough now. You can finish the rest early to-morrow morning before school.”
Without waiting for Maria’s reply, she closed the boy’s books and pushed them together.
While thus occupied, the room shook with rude blows on the door of the house. Maria threw down her sewing and started from her seat, while Barbara exclaimed:
“For Heaven’s sake, what is it?” Adrian rushed into his father’s room and opened the window.
The ladies had hurried after him, and before they could question the disturber of the peace, a deep voice called:
“Open, I must come in.”