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"Hulloah?" Julia said softly, and quick as thought she turned too, and the hand that had waved to Denah was signaling to a carriage which at that moment drove out of a stable-yard near. A light had come into her eyes, a dancing light like the gleam on a sword-blade.
Denah felt this and resented it; the elders felt it too, and for a moment or two looked at one another ill at ease. However, in a little they recovered and began to talk over Julia and her wrong doings till they felt quite comfortable again.
The cab drew up, and Julia, not failing to see Denah fulfil her words at the junction of the street, got in. Rawson-Clew followed her. She would have prevented him. "Don't come," she said; "I don't want you. Good-bye." But he insisted. "I certainly am coming," he said, and ordered the man to drive on into the town, telling Julia to give the address.
Vrouw Snieder acted principally as chorus of horror; she was shocked and angry too, on Mevrouw's account and on her own and her daughter's; she seemed to think they had all been outraged together. When Mijnheer came in they were all talking at once and Denah was weeping copiously.
They continued to talk about her a great deal afterwards, Denah going back with her sister to the kitchen and the vegetables, so as to be able to do so undisturbed. "I will help you with these," she said; "then we can go out." She sat down and took up a knife. "It is strange how much Vrouw Van Heigen thinks of that girl," she said.
"Denah saved her money and won her move," she said; "it serves me right. I under-rated her this is what always comes of under-rating the enemy." "Do you mean she knew where these people are?" Rawson-Clew asked. "That is about it, she knew and I did not." "What are you going to do?" "Wait till they come back, there is nothing else."
Denah was not clever enough to take the advice nor in any humour to do so; she stared angrily at Julia, who unconcernedly put the cups on the table and vanished into the kitchen. Joost came in for coffee drinking, and the whole party with one accord told him the tale; Julia heard them through the closed door as she sat sipping her coffee in the little room.
"It would be very damp," her mother observed. "The dew would fall." To which incontestable remark Denah made no reply. The return journey was much like the drive there, with one exception; they passed one object of interest they had not seen before. It was when they were nearing the outskirts of the town that Anna exclaimed, "An Englishman! Look, look, Miss Julia, a compatriot of yours!"
"No," Denah replied with some scorn; "she would not tell any one, she wishes it concealed; she thinks it is so, but I saw it." The tone and manner suggested many things, but Anna was a terribly matter-of-fact person, to whom suggestions were nothing. "Why should she wish it concealed?" she inquired. "I do not know why," Denah answered; "that remains to be seen.
Denah looked a little puzzled by the difficulty; she had not apparently thought out the details of life in a natural state; but before she could come to any conclusion one of the little girls cried, "Music I hear music!" All the ladies said "Delicious!" together, and "How beautiful!" and Denah, content to ignore Nature, added rapturously, "Music in the wood! Ah, exquisite! two beauties together!"
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