“Do keep quiet, Sijntje,” said Mrs. Meidema. She spoke reprovingly, although, as a loving mother, she was pleased to see her girl’s radiant looks. They had so few opportunities to go out, especially to such parties as this promised to be. Once a year they got an invitation to the Residence, and that was all.
“And how fine I shall look,” continued the girl in her glee, “in my new silk dress.” She took the parcel from the table, “Oh, yes,” said she, “I have quite made up my mind, I choose the green silk. And you Tilda?”
“I don’t know,” replied the other, “but somehow, I feel that all this bodes misfortune.”
“Oh, I say, how very silly! Just look at these samples!” cried Gesina as she opened the bundle. “Oh, what a splendid bit of brown silk—look mother, dear, that is something for you! And that deep blue is Tilda’s choice; it is fine, yes it is very fine; but the green is to my mind the best of all. Just look—But—But—what is that!”
Gesina was spreading the piece of silk on her knee in order to bring out the fine effect of the colours. As she did so—something slid out of the packet and fell at her feet. For a moment the three ladies sat there as if petrified, for at a glance they had recognized bank-notes—papers of five hundred guilders. At length Gesina stooped and picked them up. She counted them, one, two, three—up to ten.
“Five thousand guilders!” she stammered in utter confusion. “How could they have got into the parcel? It must be some mistake of the babah’s—surely he must have made some mistake.”
“I feared as much!” thought Matilda almost aloud.
“Five thousand guilders!” The thought flashed through Mrs. Meidema’s brain as she took the parcel and the papers from her daughter’s hand, “Five thousand guilders!”
Her first impulse was to send at once after the babah and to call him back—to give him his money, and to have him and his samples and his notes kicked out of the house. Five thousand guilders! And the Chinaman was already so far away. Five thousand guilders! Was it wise to let the servants know all this—no certainly not—it would not be wise. Five thousand guilders! It was about as much as her husband’s salary for ten months amounted to. She took up the notes, looked at them, smoothed them down one by one, then rolled them together. Five thousand guilders! That would pay all those troublesome tradesmen’s bills, and even then, when every farthing was paid, there would be a nice little sum left. Then Meidema might get leave of absence for a while to go into the hill-country. He wanted a change, lately he had been looking very poorly—a couple of weeks’ holidays in the hills would quite set him up. Five thousand guilders! The boys might have new jackets. All these thoughts however were cut short by the rumbling of carriage wheels on the drive.
“That is father!” cried Gesina, “quick! put away those samples and notes!”