But at this moment a welcome diversion occurred. Mietje, the child, came running round the cottage with pitiful cries.
“Pussy!” she screamed from afar; “oh, father, pussy! The rope broke, and she’s dropped into the well!”
She was sobbing and shrieking; nobody scolded her for her mischief-making. Pietje started up with eager words of comfort.
“Father would get the ladder. Father would go down into the water. Father would fish out pussy.”
Klomp was already up and away. The two girls hurried after him. The Dominé was left alone.
“Well, I have done my duty,” he mused, retracing his steps. “The best of us can do no more.” He was a very good man. He had a good man’s weakness for consciously doing his duty.
As he turned into a little brown hollow all checkered with sunlit tracery, he saw Otto van Helmont come vaulting over a stile.
“Ah, Dominé, I was looking for you,” said Otto. Then they walked on side by side, and gradually an embarrassing silence settled down between them. The Dominé broke it.
“It is a very fine day,” said the Dominé.
“Yes,” replied Otto. “Dominé, when Ursula and I are married, we must go back to Java.”
“Never,” said the Dominé, and with a sweep of his walking-stick he knocked down a thistle.
“I--I am aware that perhaps I have hardly acted quite fairly,” began Otto, speaking with some agitation. “It has all come so suddenly; I have allowed myself to be overwhelmed. Apart from her general condemnation of India, which I have never treated quite seriously, the subject has not yet been mooted between us. I wished first to speak of it to you. I feel that I am asking--”
The Dominé had stopped in the middle of the narrow path.
“It was the condition,” he interrupted, hoarsely. “She made it the condition. Never.”
“No, indeed, we have not spoken of it,” cried Otto, in distress.
The Dominé stamped his foot. “Women always forget everything,” he said.
Otto hurried on. “I want to explain,” he continued, eagerly. “I hope you will let me explain. It is a most painful thing for all of us. I cannot stay at the Horst, Dominé; that is quite out of the question. In fact, the sooner I leave it the better.”
“Why?” broke in the Dominé, vehemently. “What nonsense! Of course you can stay at the Horst!”