Page:Small Souls (1919).djvu/188

180 against my window and there’s a frightful draught in my room.”

“Then come and sit in here, Papa.”

The boy was never taken in, but remained very serious and went on working. And Van der Welcke settled himself quietly in the easy-chair, the only one in the room, with a book and a cigarette, and smoked and looked at his son. The boy, one-ideaed and persevering, worked on. . ..

“He’s an industrious little beggar,” thought Van der Welcke; and he hardly dared move for fear of disturbing Addie. “He’ll get through, this summer, though he was a bit behindhand. . . . One couldn’t go on as we were doing at Brussels, with that outside tutor. It’s just as well the boy came to Holland. He’ll get through, he’ll get through. . . . Four years at the grammar-school and then Leiden. And then he must enter the service. It’s lucky that Constance doesn’t object. But will he himself consent? I should like to see my son make his way in the career which I. . . Oh, it was a damned business, a damned business! . . . However, without Constance I should not have had Addie, my boy. And Papa too would like to see him go in for diplomacy. Papa was pleased with him too: I could see that. He will have money later; Papa and Mamma are still hale and hearty, but he will have money one of these days. . . . Just look at the boy working! And he is so serious, poor little beggar, owing to this confounded life at home. . . . Still, he’s fond of us. . . . Look at him working.