Imitating the trick of the cuttle-fish, no doubt unconsciously,
Stoffel managed to escape this fatal stare by enveloping himself in a
heavy cloud of smoke. Juffrouw Pieterse, however, not being a smoker,
was at the mercy of Juffrouw Laps. She stammered humbly: "It's in
the book, really it's in the book. Don't be angry, it's in the book."

By this time Juffrouw Laps was getting a little air, so much that
there was now no danger of her suffocating. She threw the mutilated
remains of the ginger cake on the table and began:

"Juffrouw Pieterse, you are nothing but a low, vile, filthy--you
may even be a sucking animal, you and your son too. I want you
to understand that I've always been respectable. My father sold
grain, and nobody's ever been able to say anything against me! Ask
everybody about me--if I've ever run with men-folk, and such things;
and if I haven't always paid my debts. He was manager I would have
you understand, and we lived over the chapter-house, for he was in
the grain business, and you can ask about me there. Thank God, you
can ask about me everywhere--do you hear? But never, never, never,
has such a thing happened to me. What you put on me! If it wasn't
for lowering myself I'd tell you what I think of you--you sucking
animal, you and your son and your whole family. My father sold grain,
and I'm too respectable for you to----"

"But--it's in the book that way. For God's sake believe me; it's in
the book."

"Just hold your lip about your book. Anybody who sells God's holy
word on the Ouwebrug needn't talk to me about books."

This accusation was false; for Walter, and not his mother, had sold
the Bible; but this was no time for such fine distinctions.

"Stoffel, go get the book and show Juffrouw--my God, what shall I do!"

"Go to the Devil with your book and your sucking animals. You've got
nothing to show in your book. I know you--and your lout of a son,
and your wenches of daughters, that are growing up like----"

Truitje, Myntje and Pietje, understanding from this that there
was something radically wrong with their growth, began to screech
too. Other members of the party bawled a word from time to time,
as opportunity presented itself. Then came another message from the
Juffrouw below. This time she threatened to call in the police. The
children, taking advantage of the general excitement to break the
ban under which they had been placed, had left the bed and were
now listening at the keyh