"Wilt gij my toestaan", I said, "U te vragen?" "Ja, mijnheer!" he replied expectantly.
Then I got a little confused, and no wonder. "Durf ik zoo beleefd te kunnen zijn!... om mij mede te deelen en... mij te verwittigen?" I lost myself again. It's easy to begin a Dutch conversation but hard to get out of it with honour. Like a drowning man clutching at a straw I grasped at something: "Verkoopt jullie hoenderhokken ... of hoenderhokkjes?"
He said nothing--did not even look at me--but moved his hands helplessly, as if subduing some strong emotion. I did not press this word on him, as I scarcely ever use quill pens; and it was as likely as not that the dictionary had failed me again.
I set him at his ease by a courteous phrase or two. "Het geeft niets--het hindert niet--het komt er niet op aan." Then refraining from further speech, I pointed out some nibs with my umbrella, and, having secured a box of excellent J pens, made good my retreat under cover of a friendly phrase or two: "Mijnheer! het spijt mij zeer; maar ik moet afscheid nemen. Vaarwel."
It had been rather a strain, and I was glad to get out again into the open air. On the way home I could think it all over calmly, and at leisure I deduced that most useful principle _never to use more than one word out of the dictionary for one word of English_.
SCHEI UIT! SCHIET OP! TOE DAN!--GUNST! HEUS! MIS!--ZANIK NOU NIET.--THE WORD FOR LIGHTNING.--IS TO BE ESCHEWED.
After these efforts I judged it wise to take a day or two's rest from the actual practice of Dutch conversation till my nerves had recovered their tone, and until I had mastered more of the grammar and the idiom. I was the more concerned to do so as Enderby, to whom I had related my purchase of the pens, told me that my language on that occasion had been much too stiff and formal. For the purpose then of acquiring an everyday vocabulary I listened attentively to the talk in the streets and tram-cars. Most of it was unintelligible to me, but I caught up some vigorous and happy phrases here and there. These I soon learned to pronounce in a kind of way, but it was difficult to get at their exact meaning, for many popular idioms did not appear in my dictionary at all.