e in and try all over again the day after to-morrow. To-morrow,
itself, the great day, it was no good trying; no girl would pay
attention to business then.

In the evening Julia went again into the town, but this time with
Mijnheer and Joost, and dressed in her best dress. It was not at all a
new dress, nor at all a grand one, but it was well chosen, well made
and well fitted, and certainly very well put on; the gloves and hat,
too, accorded with it, and she herself was in a humour of gaiety that
bordered on brilliancy. Was she not going to have a holiday to-morrow,
and was she not going to spend it in company with a man she liked,
and in despite of Dutch propriety, which would certainly have been
thoroughly and outrageously shocked thereby? Denah knew nothing of the
causes at work, but she was not slow to discern the result when she
and her father and sister met the Van Heigen party that evening. She
smoothed the bow at the neck of her best dress, and looked at her
gloves discontentedly; she did not altogether admire Julia's clothes,
they were not at all Dutch; but she had an intuitive idea that they
came nearer to Paris, the sartorial ideal of the nations, than her own
did. She looked suspiciously at the English girl, her eyes were
shining and sparkling like stars; they were full of alert interest and
half-suppressed mischief. She looked at everything, and overlooked
nothing, though she was talking to Mijnheer in a soft, purring voice,
that was full of fun and wickedness. Now she turned to Joost, and her
voice took another tone; she was teasing him, making fun of him in a
way that Denah decided was scandalous, although his father was there,
aiding and abetting her. Joost did not seem to resent it a bit; he
listened quite serenely, and even turned a look on her as one who has
another and private interpretation of the words. Anna saw nothing of
this; she only thought Julia very nice, and her dress pretty, and her
talk gay. But Denah, though not always so acute, was in love, and she
saw a good deal, and treasured it up for use when the occasion should
offer.

They ate _pooferchjes_, sitting in a funny little covered stall; at
least, the top and three sides were covered, the fourth was open to
the street. A long, narrow table, with clean white calico spread on
it, ran down the centre of the place, and narrow forms stood on either
side of it. It was lighted by a Chinese lantern hung from the roof,
and also, and more espe