“Oorip has suggested that the servants would like to have a sacrifice, because a new well has been built in the grounds....”
“That well which is two months old?”
“They don’t make use of the water.”
“Why not?”
“They are superstitious, you know; they refuse to use the water before the sacrifice has been offered.”
“Then it ought to have been done at once. Why didn’t they tell Kario at once to ask me? I can’t think of all that nonsense myself. But I would have given them the sacrifice then. Now it’s like mustard after meat. The well is two months old.”
“It would be a good thing all the same, Papa,” said Theo. “You know what the Javanese are like: they won’t use the well as long as they’ve not had a sacrifice.”
“No,” said Van Oudijck, unwillingly, shaking his head. “To give them a sacrifice now would have no sense in it. I would have done so gladly; but now, after two months, it would be absurd. They ought to have asked for it at once.”
“Do, Otto,” Léonie entreated. “I should give them the sacrifice. You’ll please me if you do.”
“Mamma half-promised Oorip,” Theo insisted gently.