Chapter III.
FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS.
All circumstances seemed to favour Heins's wish of trying what he could do to surpass his father in the matter of commercial success. His partner--the most irksome check upon his enterprises,--was this year chosen one of the four reigning burgomasters; and it was impossible that Vanderput should give as much attention as usual to his private business, while engaged by his public office. From the presence of his mother, Heins was also to be soon released; a presence which imposed some degree of restraint on his projects, though Mrs. Snoek thought no more than the other women of Amsterdam of interfering in those commercial affairs of which they were supposed incompetent to judge.
This prudent lady found her worldly circumstances so much altered by the death of her husband, that she thought a considerable difference in her way of life desirable; though it was impossible to affirm such a change to be necessary. It was not enough to satisfy her that she and her younger children had an abundant capital, (partly invested in country estates, and partly deposited in the Bank of Amsterdam,) besides that which remained in the hands of the firm. There was no longer a revenue from the exertions of the head of the family; and it appeared to her that there ought, therefore, to be a corresponding reduction in the family expenditure, and a more careful superintendence than ever of the means of revenue which remained. She decided on going, with her younger children, to reside on an estate which she possessed in a cheap part of the country, to the north, where she might herself manage the dairies, which had proved very productive while in the hands of her boors, and might be made still more profitable under her own management. Heins smiled to himself at this prudence in a rich widow, who could have afforded to gratify any ambition in which she might have been disposed to indulge; but he was too well pleased to be left to his own devices to offer any objection to the removal of the rest of the family to the neighbourhood of Winkel. He described the attractions of the green meadows to Roselyn, and of the shores of the Zee to Luc; and was very obliging in expediting matters for the letting of the house, and the despatch of the necessary furniture by the treckschuit. The house-tax being 2½ per cent. of the value of the house, whether it was tenanted or empty, the leaving it empty was not to be thought of, if such an extremity could by any means be avoided; but the tax on servants was also high; and this expense must go on till the family departed for Winkel, unless, as Heins dreaded, his mother should dismiss a part of her establishment while the eyes of her Amsterdam acquaintance were yet upon her. The object of the mother being to dismiss all her town servants but Kaatje, and her son's, to prevent their acquaintance witnessing this measure of economy, both were eager to let the house, and thereby expedite the final arrangements. It was perfectly satisfactory to all parties that Vanderput felt himself called upon, on the reception of his new dignity, to exhibit a little more outward state than formerly; to quit his humble abode, bring his sister to keep his house at Amsterdam, and make the cottage at Saardam his country abode. He agreed with his partner that the Keiser's Graft was a very proper situation for the residence of a reigning burgomaster; and presently concluded a bargain for Mrs. Snoek's house, to the satisfaction of both parties. Nothing then remained to impede the execution of the family plans; and Heins, after seating his mother in the boat, carefully placing Christian on his cushions by her side, and bidding farewell, with a solemn countenance, to the joyous Luc and Roselyn, betook himself homewards with a full head, a light heart, and a most satisfactory sense of his own importance as the sole representative in Amsterdam of the opulent family of Snoek.
Heins possessed in perfection the happy art of deriving importance to himself from whatever conferred it on his connexions. No one looked more ostentatiously grave than he on the day when his partner was proceeding in state to take the oaths, and examine the treasure at the Bank, in virtue of his high office. Heins pushed his way through the crowd which surrounded the Stadt-house, and exhibited himself by turns at all the seven porticoes which answered to the seven provinces, glancing around him at each, in hopes of meeting the eye of some provincial connexion whom he might either pass over with a slight notice, or from whom he might admit congratulations on the honour with which his firm was now invested for ever. The greetings were as respectful as he could desire. They could not be exceeded, unless by such as he might receive when he should himself be a reigning burgomaster. Smoke rolled away in volumes from around his dignified person, while a dozen pipes at a time were dislodged at his approach; a hum of voices arose wherever he turned, and made itself heard above the bell-music ringing from the upper air. Many who had before insisted on room for their breeches, as the English ladies of the same period for their hoops, now squeezed themselves into small compass to let the junior partner of Vanderput pursue his majestic way. It seemed that Heins was to play the first part on the scene till the rare and thrilling sound of horses' feet should be heard, betokening the approach of the magistrates: but a mortifying circumstance occurred, which disturbed the tranquillity of the little great man.
He felt himself grasped on the shoulder by a heavy hand; and, turning round, was astonished to see that one in a common sailor's dress had thus dared to accost him. He superciliously released his shoulder, and would have passed on; but Master Peter would not let him escape thus easily. He wanted to inquire after his little friend Christian, and to complain of Gertrude for fixing her abode where it was impossible for her gentle face any more to look down upon the spot where Master Peter and his companions worked. He seemed amused instead of offended at Heins's endeavours to shake him off, and, by some inexplicable means, interested the bystanders, so that it might have been unwise to treat him with downright contempt.
"I have come from Saardam this morning, Mr. Snoek, to assist at this honourable ceremony."
"One might thereby know you for a foreigner," replied Heins. "Our workmen of Holland do not leave their occupation to look on shows,--even so important as this. You may not find your master very ready to ask you to work again, if you must thus run away for a frolic."
Master Peter smiled as if he was not very uneasy on this point, and observed that a true Hollander should be gratified by the interest of foreigners in the display of civic honours. Heins replied that this depended much on the quality of the foreign observers; to which Master Peter agreed, going on to say,
"I cannot see what I wish, after all. Your people are ready enough to show parts of this magnificent building."
"It appears magnificent to foreigners, no doubt," replied Heins, with dry complacency; "but we must have something better than this hereafter."