It was already daylight; but Juffrouw Laps knew that it was too early to go to the Pieterses’. Besides, what would she say? That her little knight had run away during the night? And why? Whither? How did she know but that he had already told the story in all its details?
She determined—not to determine upon anything, and to leave the matter with the “Master” for the present. With this pious resolve she climbed into her maidenly bed; and, before falling asleep, she groaned: “If the rascal had only broken his neck, like the high priest Eli, in First Samuel, 4!”
No doubt the Master saw the distress of his faithful disciple and taught her how to meet the situation that awaited her waking; for Leentje soon returned with the assurance of Juffrouw Laps that Walter was out taking a morning walk.
In a way, this was the truth. The Juffrouw merely neglected to add why he was taking a walk, and at what hour in the morning he had gone out. Leentje, suspecting nothing, asked no questions. For her it was a “matter of course” that he would not go out in the middle of the night.
The family now regarded the incident as fresh evidence of Walter’s objectionable habit of roving, and nothing more. They felt no anxiety for his personal safety.
“There it is again!” said the mother. “The trouble and vexation I have with that boy. Anybody else would sit down for a while after breakfast; but he—what does he do? He runs away before it’s hardly daylight. Is that any way to do, Stoffel?”
“No, mother.”
“And to leave us here anxious and worrying over him!”
“Yes, mother.”
“This is a nice caper he’s cutting again. He knows very well that we’re all uneasy and won’t have a minute’s peace till he comes. God only knows where he is.”