United States or Seychelles ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Vrouw Van Heigen was there, very much absorbed in crochet; but she had left the door ajar so that she might know when Julia went, and that must have occupied a prominent place in her mind, for she made a mistake at every other stitch. "Good-bye, Mevrouw," Julia said. Vrouw Van Heigen grunted; she remembered what was due to herself and propriety.
Vrouw Van Heigen was learning a new crochet pattern; one did it in thread of a Sèvres blue shade; when several long strips were made, one sewed them together with pieces of black satin between each two, and there was an antimacassar of severe but rich beauty.
Captain Polkington did not approve of the Sunday-school teaching, especially on those days when he had to clean the knives. The Sunday when Joost Van Heigen came was one of these. The Captain watched Mr. Gillat's preparations with a disgusted face; at last he remarked, "I wonder if you think you do any good by this nonsense?"
It would have been little short of absurd, if, indeed, it had not been seriously compromising to Julia, for him to present himself at the house of the notary when he could find it and tell Vrouw Van Heigen he had brought Julia home and she was afraid to appear with him.
Mijnheer was in his office; he did not think it quite right to come to see her start either; all the same he came to the door to tell the driver to be careful not to go on the grass. Joost came also and looked over his father's shoulder, and Julia, who had been amused at Vrouw Van Heigen, suddenly forgot this little amusement again. Joost left his father. "I will tell the man," he said.
But I can't; the old fool that's got it won't sell it for any price, and he can't half work it himself. It's a blue daffodil Narcissus Triandrus Azureum he calls it; or rather, to give it its full title, Narcissus Triandrus Azureum Vrouw Van Heigen; so called, I believe, in honour of his wife, or his mother."
"Now you must call your flower a name," he said, "as I called mine Vrouw Van Heigen." "I will call it after you," Julia said. But Joost would not have that. "That will not do; the blue daffodil is already a Van Heigen; there cannot be another, it will make confusion." "Well, I'll call it the honest man, then; that will be you." Joost did not like that either; he thought it very unsuitable.
But as yet, though he had some comprehension of Julia, he had not fully realised the promptness of action which necessity had taught her. When he reached the Van Heigens' she had been gone some sixteen hours. It was Vrouw Van Heigen who told him; she was in the veranda when he arrived, and so, perforce, saw him and answered his inquiries.
Julia said it was, and Vrouw Van Heigen added by way of apology for her, that she had been busy making a cool morning dress. "For yourself?" Anna asked. "Do you make your dresses?" "This is for Mevrouw," Julia answered; "but I can make my own."
Was she not going to have a holiday to-morrow, and was she not going to spend it in company with a man she liked, and in despite of Dutch propriety, which would certainly have been thoroughly and outrageously shocked thereby? Denah knew nothing of the causes at work, but she was not slow to discern the result when she and her father and sister met the Van Heigen party that evening.
Word Of The Day