Bos.
If you had asked me: “Father, how is this?” I would have explained it to you. But you conceited young people meddle with everything and more, too! What stronger proof is there than the yearly inspection of the ships by the underwriters? Do you suppose that when I presently ring up the underwriter and say to him, “Meneer, you can plank down fourteen hundred guilders”—that he does that on loose grounds? You ought to have a face as red as a buoy in shame for the way you flapped out your nonsense! Nonsense, I say! Nonsense; that might take away my good name, if I wasn’t so well known.
Clementine.
[Sadly.] If I were a ship owner—and I heard——
Bos.
God preserve the fishery from an owner who makes drawings and cries over pretty vases! I stand as a father at the head of a hundred homes. Business is business. When you get sensitive you go head over heels. What, Kaps? [Kaps makes a motion that he cannot hear.] Now, go to your mother. The Burgomaster’s wife is making a call.
Kaps.
Here is the muster roll. [Reading.] Willem Hengst, aged thirty-seven, married, four children——
Bos.
Wait a moment till my daughter——