If he had had the courage he would have asked her just to deposit the promised dainties somewhere outside of her flat. He would find them then. But he didn’t have the courage.
“And why didn’t you go?” asked the mother when Stoffel’s enthusiasm over the sermon had begun to die down.
Walter said he had a pain in his stomach, which children always have when they want to bridge over disagreeable duties. With a better understanding between the parents and children this disease would be less frequent.
“I don’t believe you have any pain in your stomach,” declared the mother. “It’s only because you’re a bad child and never do what you’re told to do.”
Stoffel agreed with her; and then a council of war was held. Walter was condemned to go to Juffrouw Laps’s at once; and he went.
Expecting some terrible ordeal, he was greatly embarrassed and confused by the show of friendliness with which he was received.
“And you did come, my dear boy! But you are so late! Church has been out a long time. See what I have for you, expressly for you!”
She thrust him into a chair at the table and shoved all sorts of sweets over to him. Walter’s embarrassment increased; and he felt even less at ease when she began to stroke him and call him pet names.
“Now, tell me about the sermon,” she said, when the child tried to escape the tenderness and affection to which he was not accustomed. “What did the pastor say?”
“The text——”