Stoffel was thinking: “Virtue!”
The mother’s thoughts ran: “Twelve stivers for a ticket, and waffles and chocolate extra!”
Walter was saying to himself: “A hunter! A whole year in the forest, in the great forest, and alone. I’d like to do it, too.”
He took up his brush and looked at Ophelia: “To be alone in the great forest with—Femke!”
But the theatre question was far from being settled. Leentje had to clear up many doubtful points yet. For instance, Pietro wanted to know how old the woman was when the Baron finally married her. Leentje thought she must have been about sixty.
Also Juffrouw Laps had to express her opinion. She declared that she was opposed to everything “worldly,” and insisted that Walter be sent to church.
Later she got into a big dispute over the theatre with Master Pennewip, whom Stoffel had brought in to reinforce his position. He had brought with him “Floris the Fifth,” that powerful comedy by the noble Bilderdyk. With many declensions and conjugations and remarks on rhyme and metre, he explained, firstly, that “Floris the Fifth” was a play from which much could be learned; and, secondly, that the theatre was something very moral and thoroughly respectable.
To be sure, he failed to convince Juffrouw Laps. Nor was Walter greatly impressed by that masterpiece, despite the fact that there were three deaths in it. He much preferred the beautiful story of Glorioso, or the Peruvian story—or even Little Red Riding Hood.