Joanna laughed. "I shall just say a word or two, also, about that,
Batavius."
"Come, come, the word or two was said so long ago. Have you got the
pretty Chinese kas I sent from the ship? and the Javanese cabaya,
and the sweetmeats, and the golden pins?"
"All of them I have got. Much money, Batavius, they must have cost."
"Well, well, then! There is enough left. A man does not go to the
African coast for nothing. Katrijntje, mijn meisje, what's the matter
now, that you never come once?"
Katherine was standing at the open window, apparently watching the
honey-bees among the locust blooms, but really perceiving something far
beyond them,--a boat on the river at the end of the garden. She could
not have told how she knew that it was there; but she saw it, saw it
through the intervening space, barred and shaded by many trees. She felt
the slow drift of the resting oars, and the fascination of an eager,
handsome face lifted to the lilac-bushes which hedged the bank. So the
question of Batavius touched very lightly her physical consciousness. A
far sweeter, a far more peremptory voice called her; but she answered,-"There is nothing the matter, Batavius. I am well, I am happy. And now I
will go into the garden to make me a fine nosegay."
"Three times this week, into the garden you have gone to get a nosegay;
and then all about it you forget. It will be better to listen to
Batavius, I think. He will tell us of the strange countries where he has
been, and of the strange men and women."
"For you, Joanna, that will be pleasant; but"-"For you also. To listen to Batavius is to learn something."
"Well, that is the truth. But to me all this talk is not very
interesting. I will go into the garden;" and she walked slowly out of
the door, and stopped or stooped at every flower-bed, while Joanna
watched her.
"The child is now a woman. It will be a lover next, Joanna."
"There is a lover already; but to anything he says, Katrijntje listens
not. It is at her father's knee she sits, not at the lover's."
"It will be Rem Verplanck? And what will come of it?"
"No, it is Neil Semple. To-night you will see. He comes in and talks of
the Assembly and the governor, and of many things of great moment. But
it is Katherine for all that. A girl has not been in love four years for
nothing. I can see, too, that my father looks sad, and my mother says
neither yes nor no in the matter."