“Are the courts so very busy just now?” asked another.
“By Jove!” exclaimed a third, “that’s what I call zeal for the service!”
“Ornithologically speaking,” laughed van Beneden, “our friend Charles should be classed with the rara avis. Come, come, old fellow, this is no time for working! All Santjoemeh is astir—just hear what an infernal row is going on yonder.”
“Yes,” remarked Theodoor Grenits, with a scornful laugh, “they are making noise enough over it.”
“My dear friends,” replied van Nerekool, “the greater part of the day I have been very busy indeed; for as Leendert just now observed with more truth than he himself was aware, at the present moment we have a great deal of work to get through in the courts; but yet, when you came in, I was occupied in a very different manner.”
“Would it be indiscreet to ask what made our host bend his head so anxiously over his desk?” asked Theodoor.
“Not at all, I was reading a letter I have just received from William; that is what made me lay aside my pen.”
“From William Verstork?”
“How is he?”
“Is he well?”