“My very own after one more voyage,” laughed Jan. “I have Burgomaster Allart's promise.”
“A promise is not a performance,” hinted Nicholas. “Burgomaster Allart is not a rich man; a higher bid might tempt him. Another might step in between you and become the owner.”
Jan only laughed. “Why, that would be the work of an enemy, which, God be praised, I do not think that I possess.”
“Lucky lad!” commented Nicholas; “so few of us are without enemies. And your parents, Jan, will they live with you?”
“We wished it,” answered Jan, “both Christina and I. But the mother is feeble. The old mill has grown into her life.”
“I can understand,” agreed Nicholas. “The old vine torn from the old wall withers. And your father, Jan; people will gossip. The mill is paying?”
Jan shook his head. “It never will again; and the debts haunt him. But all that, as I tell him, is a thing of the past. His creditors have agreed to look to me and wait.”
“All of them?” queried Nicholas.
“All of them I could discover,” laughed Jan.
Nicholas Snyders pushed back his chair and looked at Jan with a smile upon his wrinkled face. “And so you and Christina have arranged it all?”