“You have a mother; what do you call her?”
“Why, I call her mother.”
“Correct. What do the other people call her?”
“They call her Juffrouw Pieterse.”
“Just so. When we call the holy virgin ‘ivory tower’ it’s just like calling your mother Juffrouw Pieterse. Ivory gate means that to get to heaven we must go through the holy virgin. That’s the main thing.”
“But, Femke, what is a virgin?”
Femke blushed.
“That is anybody that has never had a child.”
“Me?” asked Walter in astonishment.
“No, child, it must be a girl!”