Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/193



“Cannot you go to the Zoological Gardens, if you wish to see foreign animals? Must those animals be on the Ganges, which you never observe so well in the wilderness as in a nice enclosure of iron? Why are those animals and ? I will not speak of the latter word (it serves to make foolish verses rhyme), but pious? What is the meaning of that? Is not this an abuse of a holy word that should only be used of men who hold the true faith? And then that holy stream? These stories you tell to Mary might make her a Pagan, might make her faith waver as to the existence of any other holy water than that of baptism, and any holier river than the Jordan. Is not that an undermining of morality, virtue, religion, Christianity, and respectability?

“Think about all this, Stern! Your father is the head of a respectable firm, and I am quite sure that he