“What is a pity?”
“It is a pity that boys are such an expensive luxury, for they are jolly little fellows.”
“Now did you ever hear such a girl?” laughed Mrs. Meidema, “first she grumbles at the trouble those good-for-nothing boys give her, and then she calls them jolly little fellows!”
“Well, mother dear, you must let me grumble a bit now and then, I really can’t help it when we have such a heap of boys’ clothes to mend,” and with these words the young girl laid her fair head lovingly on her mother’s shoulder.
“Money is not everything,” said Matilda, sententiously, as she kept on stitching busily, while Mrs. Meidema was running her fingers through her daughter’s flowing curls.
The difference between her father’s income and the pay of Resident van Gulpendam led Matilda to make this philosophical remark.
“Of course not, Matilda,” replied Gesina, “of course not; money is not everything—look at us now, are we not happy?”
“Yes,” said Matilda, “and to complete the comparison, could anyone be happier even in the Residence itself? Oh, when I come to think over what has happened, I cannot help feeling very sad. Poor, poor Anna!”
“Have you had any news from her?” asked Gesina, who by this time had resumed her work.
“Yes, this morning I had a letter from Karang Anjer, such a wretchedly sad letter. Knowing Anna’s character as I do I can read despair in every word, and I fear—oh, yes, I fear, the very worst—She is capable, I do really think, of any desperate deed.”