"I don't want any 'but', Juffrouw Pieterse. I ask you, whether you have had any complaints. I mean, of course, well grounded complaints about my instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic----"
"Well, no, Master Pennewip, I have no complaints; but----"
"So-oo? No complaints? Well, then I will explain to you--where is your son Walter?"
"Walter? Dear me! Hasn't he come home, Trudie? He went to take a walk with the Halleman boys. They are such respectable children, Master Pennewip, and they live----"
"So! With the Hallemans--who go to the French school! Aha, and that's it? So--from the Hallemans! And he learns such things from the Hallemans--the Hallemans III, 7, a2, perhaps 'a'--yes, who knows but that it might be II. It's no wonder--immorality, viciousness--at the French school! And now, Juffrouw Pieterse, I want to tell you that your son----"
Master Pennewip looked about him as if he were drinking in the breathless silence that had fallen over his hearers.
Juffrouw Laps hastened to repay with compound interest that triumphant look of the hostess, while that lady, thoroughly miserable, was making frequent use of the camphor bottle. She was not so much mortified that Juffrouw Laps should hear something else unfavorable about Walter, who had caused them so much trouble, as angry that she should be the witness of an accusation that would give her a new weapon in the zoˆlogical fray.
"Didn't I tell you so? Nothing good will ever come to this Walter. A boy that begins with the Bible will end with something else. Yes, Master Pennewip, I'm not surprised--I shouldn't be surprised at anything he did. I've seen it coming for a long time. But what shouldn't one expect from a family----"
As quick as a flash Juffrouw Pieterse saw here her opportunity to recover her lost advantage. Stoffel had said it was in the book; but a teacher must know whatever is in a book. Therefore----
"Master Pennewip," she cried, "Is it true that Juffrouw Laps is a sucking animal?"
I am convinced that Pennewip brought this question under a special category for "peculiar overflowings of the heart," seeing that it followed upon his unfinished accusation against Walter. He looked over his glasses and slowly described with his eye a circle, peopled with women holding their breath, heads and necks stretched out and mouths wide open. The attitude of Juffrouw Laps was threatening above everything else, and said quite distinctly: Answer or die! Am I a sucking animal?