He jumped up and ran into the room where the Holsmas were. He saw a triangular piece of a woman’s dress disappear through the door; then the door closed.
He didn’t have the courage—or was something else beside courage necessary to ask, “Is that Femke?”
On his way home that evening Walter did not suffer in the least from the sensation of being borne through the air; or from anything similar. He was on the earth, very much on the earth. He felt lowly.
If he had only seen that bit of Femke’s dress somewhere else, and not at the Holsmas—not in that swell family; not in the company of Sietske, who had so much money in her “savings-bank,” nor in the presence of the vain William, who was studying Latin!
He was brave enough to feel ashamed of himself; and that’s all I can say in his favor.
Let us now look at things from the point of view of Juffrouw Pieterse. That lady was in the clouds. She was hoping that the messenger who had brought her news of Walter had not been able to find her flat at once. The idea of someone from Dr. Holsma’s asking for her through the neighborhood was decidedly pleasant. The longer he might have had to inquire for her the better!
“Of course he was at the grocer’s,” she said. “Such messengers never know where they have to go. Of course he told that the ‘young gentleman’ was staying at Dr. Holsma’s! And such a man always tattles; such people don’t do anything but tattle. But, as far as I’m concerned, everybody can know it. I only mean that such people like to tattle. But—say, Walter, how did it happen that you went with the family? You’re a nice rascal. Stoffel, what do you say?”
Stoffel made a serious face—as much as to say: “Hm! I’ll have to think over it. He’s been up to something.”
“I met the Holsma family in Kalver Street,” Walter said. He told the truth; he had met the family in Kalver Street. But why didn’t he tell anything about the extraordinary circumstances under which he met them? Ah—there’s the rub!
“Your back is so sticky!” complained Pietro, whose care it was to look after the washing.