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By that time Denah had set the crochet work quite straight, and with kisses and hand-shakings the visitors departed. Julia went back to the little room where first she washed the glasses that had been used, afterwards she finished the shrimps and washed them and put them ready for supper in a china dish like a large soap dish on three feet.
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 "
Anna saw nothing of this; she only thought Julia very nice, and her dress pretty, and her talk gay. But Denah, though not always so acute, was in love, and she saw a good deal, and treasured it up for use when the occasion should offer. They ate pooferchjes, sitting in a funny little covered stall; at least, the top and three sides were covered, the fourth was open to the street.
A jealous woman, even an ordinarily foolish one, is a very dangerous thing when she is attacking a fancied rival with a chance of encompassing her overthrow. Denah would have got her tale told, her case proven, indignation aroused and sympathy with her before the Van Heigens even saw Julia.
Denah did not admire it greatly, she said she much preferred her own present. At this Joost smiled a little; it was only what he expected, and Julia began tactfully to talk about the beauties of the vase; but Denah was not to be put off her main point. "Do you not prefer mine; really and truly, would you not rather it had been yours?" she asked.
Denah declined; she felt in no humour for it; also she thought a refusal showed a superior mind one likely to appeal to a serious young man, who had no taste for the gaudy, gay, or fast, and who also had a tendency towards seasickness. But, alas, for the fickleness of man!
With these things packed in a substantial marketing basket, she started. Through the town she went with that easy step and indifference to the presence of other people that Denah so criticised, faster and faster her spirits rising.
She had only come into the room to fetch keys, but a remark from her mother brought her to the window. "There goes Vrouw Van Heigen's English miss," the old lady said, and both her daughters looked at once. "She has been marketing, I see; she seems a good housewife." "She walks in the road," Denah observed critically; "It is so conspicuous, I could not do it; besides, one might be run over."
"Rather, I admire those who have fought temptation, who are strong, who know and understand and have conquered; they inspire me to try and follow. What inspiration is there in the other? Consider Miss Denah, for an example; she has perhaps never wanted to do more wrong than to take her mother's prunes, but is there inspiration in her?
"Denah," she said, pitching her voice soft and low in the tone the Dutch girl hated most, "I will give you a piece of advice; take care how you tell Joost about my wickedness; you want to be ever so clever to abuse another girl to a man; it is one of the most difficult things in the world and you are not very clever, you know, not even clever enough to take my advice."
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