. He talked a
good deal about his affairs now, giving her little bits of information
and explaining rather proudly his method of doing business, and his
father's and his grandfather's before him. Joost, as usual, said
little or nothing; he must have been five or six and twenty, but he
had hardly ever left the parental roof, and was usually so hard at
work that he had little time or inclination for frivolity. He had
earnest child-like blue eyes that Julia did not care to look at, any
more than she did the round yellow face of Mr. Gillat's watch. This
was rather a pity as she could not always avoid it, and certainly he
looked at her a good deal, in fact whenever he thought he was not
observed. Of course he always was observed, by her at least; that was
a foregone conclusion; the observation gave her some uneasiness.

After dinner the father and son went to sit on the veranda, and
Mevrouw helped Julia take the dishes into the white marble kitchen and
the glasses into the little off-room. Later, Julia came to sit on the
veranda, too--it was somewhat stuffy being all closed in with glass
windows. There they drank pale tea, the pot kept simmering on a
spirit-stove, and read the foreign papers which had just come. Mevrouw
did not read, she made tea and did crochet work, a strip like Vrouw
Snieder's, only yellow instead of red. Julia, it is to be feared, did
not try to master the pattern so kindly set right by Denah; she could
not resist the breath from the outside world which the papers brought.

At six o'clock Mijnheer and his son went back to the office, and
Julia, having washed the tea-cups, joined Mevrouw in the sitting-room.
It was never very light in that room, for the walls were covered with
a crimson flock paper and the woodwork was black; while the windows,
which looked on the canal, were always shaded till dark. They sat here
at work on the morning gown, till supper time. Mijnheer sometimes came
in an hour before supper, as early as half-past eight; Joost had
usually too much to do to come in before half-past nine. After supper,
when the things were cleared away, they had prayers; Mijnheer read a
chapter from the Bible, and they sat round the table and listened, and
afterwards he said, "Now we will pray," and they sat a while in
silence. Julia sat, too, her keen, observing eyes cast down and a
curious stillness about her. After that every one went to bed; Julia
and the maidservant had two little rooms right up in th