ad found no
peace in that divine immutability.

And now the day came which was Henri's birthday. She dressed very early,
with difficulty and with shaking hands, and, when Piet told her that
there was a train at nine o'clock, she blushed and remained quietly
waiting for the carriage to be got ready and for Piet to come and tell
her. She was her ordinary self at breakfast, but tried, without
attracting attention, not to eat, because the bread stuck in her throat;
and, when, at the breakfast-table, her husband asked if she had not
telegraphed to Henri, she answered:

"No."

Almost inaudibly and silently, she thus conveyed to her husband that she
wished to give Henri a surprise.

She remained sitting motionless; did not wash up the breakfast-cups that
morning, as she was always wont to do; was a little uncomfortable in the
presence of her husband and the parlour-maid and Piet at this omission
of her usual habit. She heard the clock ticking, the seconds falling
away; and she was afraid that, if Piet loitered so, she would be late,
or that there would be an accident. Luckily, the morning-paper came; and
the old man plunged into its pages while she remained waiting, in her
cloak and her unfashionable, black, old lady's bonnet, for Piet to come
and say that it was time to go. The parlour-maid washed up the
breakfast-cups; and she was afraid the maid would break one, because she
was not used to it. It made quite a change, throughout the house, that
she was going this morning by train, to the Hague, to Henri, whose
birthday it was. She was uncomfortable and she feared that the people
along the road and at the station would stand looking and wondering why
Mrs. van der Welcke was going on a journey. And, when, at last, Piet
came to tell her, she could not get up at first, because her old legs
shook so and her feet pricked her, as though they had been asleep. But
she made a painful effort, stood up, gave Piet her purse; and the old
man said:

"Piet, will you look after mevrouw, getting in and out of the train?"

Piet promised; and she took leave of her husband. The carriage was at
the door; and she dared not look at Dirk, the coachman, because she was
shy, while Piet held open the carriage-door and helped her to step in,
with some little difficulty. In the carriage, she shrank back, because
the woman with the vegetables was just passing and she was afraid that
she might see her. Also she reflected that the people in the other