Suddenly he noticed Henk’s face.
“But I say, what has happened to you? Your cheek is all over blood.”
“Oh, that’s nothing at all. When Eline ran away I rushed after her, and through the wind the door in the vestibule fell to and broke the glass. The shattered glass sprang into my eyes, and so I could not at once run after her. Still, as soon as I could [[242]]I got out into the street with Gerard, to drag her home again if necessary. But it was so confoundedly dark; the gas-lamps were blown out in the storm, and I could see nothing of her. I did not know what to do. Then we went to the police-station on the Schelpkade, and they sent out some night-watchmen to find her. She was in such a state. I thought perhaps she might have made an end of herself, and in this infernal weather anything might happen to her. My eye pains me; I shall go and see an oculist to-morrow.”
Betsy fell down with a sigh in a chair.
“Oh, ’tis terrible, terrible!” she faltered. “That girl can behave like a maniac sometimes!”
“Of course, if you do your best to drive her mad!” cried Henk angrily, with his hand on his eye.
“Ah, bien! Yes, blame me for it.”
“Van Raat, there is just a thing or two I want to say to you,” interrupted Frans. “In the first place, I came round here without a moment’s delay, because I feared you would be terribly anxious about her.”
“Old chap, I don’t know how I can thank you.”
“Never mind about that just now. But Eline has positively declared that she would not go back to you. Now I need not tell you that such an affair as that soon gets wind; people begin to talk, and all that, and that! not very pleasant. And the servants know all about it too, don’t they?”