Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/295

 such people want to wear embroidered pants? In a corner stood a travelling-trunk, not very heavy, which without thinking I half raised by one handle, and on the mantelpiece lay some books, which I just had a look at. A curious collection! A couple of volumes of Byron, Horatius, Bastiat, Béranger, and just guess! A Bible, a complete Bible, with even the Apocrypha in it! I certainly had not expected at Shawlman’s. And it seemed to have been read, too, for I found quite a number of notes on loose bits of paper, which related to the Scriptures—he says that Eve came into the world twice the man is mad!—well, everything was in the same handwriting as the documents in that cursed bundle. He seemed to have made a special study of the Book of Job, for there the leaves were dog-eared. I suppose that he is beginning to feel the hand of the Lord, and that therefore he wants to reconcile himself with God by reading the holy books. I don’t object. But while I was still waiting, my glances lighted on a lady’s work-box which stood on the table. I looked at it unintentionally. There was in it a pair of child’s half-finished stockings, a lot of silly verses, and also a letter to Shawlman’s wife, as was evident from the superscription. The letter had been opened, and looked as if it had been crumpled up in anger. Now it is a fixed principle with me never to read anything that is not addressed to me, as I don’t think it good manners. So I never do it when I am not interested. But now I had an inspiration that it was my duty just to have a look at that letter, because the contents might perhaps enlighten me with regard to my humanitarian intention in visiting Shawlman. I reflected how surely the Lord is always with His own, as now He unexpectedly gave me the opportunity to get to know a little more about that man, and so protected me against the danger of doing a benefit to an immoral person. I pay scrupulous attention to such directions from the Lord, and it has often been of great use to me in business. To my amazement I saw that the wife of this Shawlman belonged to a very good family, at least the letter was signed by a relative whose name in Holland is most dis-