Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/99

 packed themselves into the carriage as comfortably as possible, and the company drove away. The jolting and shaking made conversation difficult. Little Max was kept good with pesang, and his mother, who held him in her lap, would absolutely not admit that she was tired, when Havelaar offered to take the heavy child. During a moment of enforced rest in a mud-hole, Verbrugge asked the Resident whether he had already spoken to the new Assistant-Resident about Mrs. Slotering.

“Mister Havelaar. Has said ”

“Certainly, Verbrugge, why not? The lady can stay with us. I should not like ”

“That. It. Was. All right,” the Resident dragged out with a great effort.

“I should not like to deny the use of my house to a lady in her circumstances! A thing like that speaks for itself doesn’t it, Tine?”

Tine also considered that it spoke for itself.

“You have two houses at Rangkas-Betoong,” said Verbrugge. “There is room and to spare for two families.”

“But even if it were not so ”

“I. Dared. Not. Promise ”

“Well, Resident!” exclaimed Mrs. Havelaar, “there is no doubt about it!”

“It. Her. For. It. Is ”

“Even if there were ten of them, so long as they were willing to make the best of things.”

“A. Great. Inconvenience. And. She. Is ”

“But travelling in her condition is an impossibility, Resident!”

A violent jerk of the carriage, as it became de-mudded, placed an exclamation mark after Tine’s assertion that travelling was an impossibility for Mrs. Slotering. Everyone had uttered the usual “I say!” that follows such a jerk. Max had found in the lap of his mother the pesang he had lost through the jolt, and they were