“Oh, don’t be uneasy! It is biscuit out of the tin box from Batavia, and the sugar too has been kept under lock and key.”
Havelaar’s thoughts turned again to the point where they had been interrupted.
“Do you know,” he continued, “that we have not yet paid that doctor’s bill?…”
“Oh! that is very hard!”
“Dear Max, we live so economically here, we shall soon be able to pay all; moreover, you will certainly soon be appointed Resident, and then all will be arranged in a little time.”
“That is exactly the thing that makes me sad,” said Havelaar. “I should be so unwilling to leave Lebak.… [[391]]I will explain that to you. Don’t you believe that we loved our Max more after his illness? Now, it appears to me that I shall love poor Lebak still more, after it has recovered from the cancer from which it has suffered for so many years. The thought of promotion frightens me, and yet on the other side, when I think again that we have debts.…”
“All will be right, Max! even if you had to go from here, then you could help Lebak afterwards on being made Governor-General.”
Then came wild lines in Havelaar’s pattern——there was anger in those flowers, … those strips were sharp, angular, crossing each other.… Tine understood that she had said something wrong.
“Dear Max!” she began kindly.
“A curse on it!… Will you have them starve so long?… Can you live on sand?”