When she reached the address given, Femke learned that the Pieterses had moved to a "sweller neighborhood." It was quite a distance away; but Femke was not deterred by that.
Once at the Pieterses', she was received by the young ladies with a rough, "What do you want?"
"Oh, Juffrouw, I wanted to ask about Walter."
"I am Femke, Juffrouw, and my mother is a wash-woman. I would like to know if Walter is all right."
"What have you got to do with Walter?" asked Juffrouw Pieterse, who had heard the commotion and came down.
"Ah, Juffrouw, don't be angry--I wanted to know; and my mother knows that I've come to ask. Walter told me about Telasco, and the girl that was to die--oh, Juffrouw, tell me if he's sick! I cannot sleep till I know."
"That's none of your business. Go, I tell you! I don't want strange people standing around the door."
"For mercy's sake, Juffrouw!" cried the girl, wringing her hands.
"The girl's crazy. Put her out, Trudie, and slam the door!"
Trudie began to execute the order. Myntje and Pietje got ready to help her; but the child clung to the balustrade and held her ground.
"Oh, Juffrouw, I'm not impudent. I will go. Just tell me whether Walter is sick. Tell me, and I will go right now. Just tell me if he's sick--if, if he's going--to die."
The poor child began to weep. Anybody else but those Pieterse women would have been touched at the sight. They were too far up the ladder.
Plainer people, or nobler people would have understood Femke. Feeling, sympathy, is like the money in a gambling-place. It doesn't come to everybody. There wenches and countesses sit side by side; merely respectable people, who sell shoes made in Paris, are not there.
"I won't go!" cried Femke. "Oh, God! I won't go! I will know whether that child is sick!"
A door was heard opening above; and Walter came in sight. He tumbled down the steps and fell unconscious at Femke's feet.
"That boy!" groaned the old lady, while the girls stood as if transfixed. Femke picked Walter up and carried him upstairs. His bed was pointed out to her, and she placed him in it. No one had the courage to run her away when she took a chair by the bedside. If at this moment the rights of the Pieterses and Femke had been voted upon, all the votes would have gone to Femke.