Part 23 (1/2)
”Gerrit, just let me tell you something ... let me speak to you for three minutes ... in the Woods....”
The voice coaxed him and he saw that deep glint of mockery in the laughing eyes.
”Only for three minutes ... and then I sha'n't worry you any more....”
”Well ... go ahead then!” said Gerrit. ”You go on.... I'll follow you.... But be quick ... I've no time....”
”Where are you going?”
”Home.”
”Are you married, Gerrit?”
”Yes. Go ahead now.”
”And have you any kiddies?”
”Yes, I have.... _Ajo_!...”[1]
”I expect they're charming kiddies, Gerrit?”
Once again the deep glint in those golden, mocking eyes leapt out at Gerrit ... and then she had turned, walked away quickly, gone down the Timorstraat, disappeared in the Woods. It was quite dark there.
”Well, what is it?”
”I haven't seen you for twelve years, Gerrit.”
”Is that all you have to say to me?...”
”No, listen,” she said, swiftly, understanding that she must make the most of this precious moment. ”Listen. I've been twelve years in Paris, Gerrit; I've had a lot of trouble there, I can tell you.... But a lot of fun too. I was all the rage: my photo used to be in the shop-windows between the Tsar and the King of the Belgians and under Otero's. That shows, doesn't it?... But a lot of trouble too, Gerrit. Men are beasts, Gerrit: they're not all like you, so kind, so nice. I often used to think of you....”
”Yes, but I don't care a hang about all this....”
”I often thought of you, how nice you were and how kind, though you often pretended to be rough and put on such an angry voice.... Well, Gerrit, I had to go back to the Hague--you see, it's too long a story to tell you--and now, Gerrit, now I want to tell you, I'm very hard up ...
I haven't got a penny just now.... Please, Gerrit, can you give me fifty guilders?”
”Look here, if you think I'm well off, you're very much mistaken. I can't give you anything.”
”Well, Gerrit, couldn't you give me twenty-five guilders? You'd be doing me a good turn.”
”I haven't got it.”
”Oh, but, please, Gerrit, can't you give me _something_?”
Gerrit fumbled in his pocket:
”Here's two rixdollars ... and a ten-guilder piece. That's all I've got.
I'm not rich and I don't go about with sheaves of notes in my pocket.”