Page:The black tulip (IA 10892334.2209.emory.edu).pdf/145

 “What cause have you to entertain such a happy prospect?”

“Rather say, this fear, Mynheer Cornelius.”

“Thank you, Rosa, you are right; well, I will say, then, this fear?”

“I have only this reason”

“Tell me, I am anxious to hear.”

“This man, came several times before to the Buitenhof, at the Hague. I remember now, it was just about the time when you were confined there. When I left, he left too, when I came here, he came after me. At the Hague his pretext was that he wanted to see you.”

“See me?”

“Yes, it must have undoubtedly been only a pretext; for now, when he could plead the same reason, as you are my father’s prisoner again, he does not care any longer for you; quite the contrary, I heard him say to father only yesterday that he did not know you.”

“Go on, Rosa, pray do, that I may guess who that man is, and what he wants.”

“Are you quite sure, Mynheer Cornelius, that none of your friends can interest himself for you?”

“I have no friends, Rosa, I have only my old nurse, whom you know, and who knows you. Alas! poor Sue, she would come herself, and use no roundabout ways. She would at once say to your father or to you, ‘My good sir, or my good miss, my child is here, see how grieved I am, let me see him only for one hour and I’ll pray for you as long as I live.’ No, no,” continued. Cornelius, “with the exception of my poor old Sue, I have no friends in this world.”

“Then I come back to what I thought before; and the more so as last evening at sunset, whilst I was arranging the border where I am to plant your bulb, I saw a shadow gliding between the elder trees, and the