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But her business there did not take long and she was home again, as she intended, before Mevrouw got back from the Snieders. But she had not been in much more than five minutes before the old lady, supported by Vrouw Snieder and Denah, arrived. Mijnheer came home not long after, and, hearing news of the return of the truant, went to the house to join the others.
Next the grand skating race was talked over; Mevrouw van Gend gladly promised to be present on the occasion. "I shall witness your triumph, Peter," she said, "for you are the fastest skater I ever knew." Peter blushed and gave a slight cough as Carl answered for him. "Ah, mevrouw, he is swift, but all the Broek boys are fine skaters even the rag pickers," and he thought bitterly of poor Hans.
The rapacious mouth, with the thick scarlet lips, belonged to the eyes. He had put on his hat again, but he swept it off in a flourishing bow, as Mevrouw Brounckers, in high-kilted wincey, a man's hat of coarse straw perched on her weather-beaten, sandy-grey head, came stumping down the waggon-ladder, calling for her potatoes.
No one contradicting this, Mijnheer counted the money and gave it to Julia. "Thank you," she said; "now I will set the table for coffee drinking. You will stay, of course, Mevrouw," she went on, turning to Vrouw Snieder "and Miss Denah, that will be two extra Mijnheer Joost will be in, Denah; you can tell him about it." Denah flushed indignantly, and Vrouw Snieder could only say "You You "
At last she was off, Mijnheer's galoshes wallowing about her feet, his black-caped mackintosh thrown round her shoulders. She had neither hat nor umbrella. Mevrouw literally wailed when she started; but it made no impression, she came of the nation most indifferent to getting wet, and most-susceptible to death by consumption of any in Europe.
"Don't all talk at once, please, I can't understand." Everyone panted and looked at Rychie Korbes, who was their acknowledged spokeswoman. "Why," said Rychie, "we are to have a grand skating match on the twentieth, on Mevrouw van Gleck's birthday. It's all Hilda's work. They are going to give a splendid prize to the best skater."
"Why do you say so, mynheer?" asked Hans. Just then a lady slowly entered from an adjoining apartment. It was Mevrouw van Holp arrayed in the grandest of caps and the longest of satin aprons ruffled with lace. She nodded placidly as Hans stepped back from the fire, bowing as well as he knew how. Peter at once drew a high-backed oaken chair toward the fire, and the lady seated herself.
Hans glanced toward the village, as he shook his silver kwartjes and wondered whether it were really true, as he had often heard, that some of the people of Broek were so rich that they used kitchen utensils of solid gold. He had seen Mevrouw van Stoop's sweet cheeses in market, and he knew that the lofty dame earned many a bright silver guilder in selling them.
The professor found she had been but a distant relative of the Mevrouw Baake, to seek whom she had come to Utrecht, and that she had no kinsfolk upon whom she could depend a fact which accounted for the profusion of her jewellery, all her golden trinkets having descended to her as heirlooms. "I can be your servant, mynheer," she suggested.
Go to bed now, do you say? No, no, my dear, I will sit here; I am comfortable enough; I read my paper, I smoke my cigar; by and by, I go out to see that my barns are all safe for the night." But at this Mevrouw gave an exclamation; the idea of his going out in such weather was terrible, she said, and she said it a good many times.
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