“Van Arlen, you are a fool.”
“If it should come out that I have been playing a double game?”
“If this Minister is still in office, just remind him of that appointment; if there is another, you can lay the blame on his predecessor, and the disorder occasioned by the unnecessary nomination of new officials.”
“But—I took an oath——”
“And didn’t the Minister do so too? Come, shut up shop for to-day, and come and dine with me.”
“With you?”
“Why not? Yesterday I was your guest, to-day you are mine. I am staying at the Bellevue; but if there are too many princes there for your taste, we’ll go and dine at the Badhuis restaurant.”
“Impossible; I can’t leave the office till four. If you’ll believe me, Prigson, I envy the clerks, who can take their hats and go whenever they like.”
“The burdens of greatness.... So you’re free at four, are you? Well, I’ll drive round and fetch you.”
Accordingly, at four, Prigson arrived in a cab, and conveyed not only Van Arlen, but his wife and Leida, to the garden restaurant at Scheveningen known as the Badhuis. They dined sumptuously, and did not even refuse champagne. This was an unheard-of event in their lives—but they were not paying the bill.