Marianne and Hetty hooted with laughter at Willy, who had left one of his shoes in the White Hollow; Tina, Johan and Madeleine shrieked in unison as they told Mathilda how Nico had very nearly been left behind because he had gone off in search of his toy spade, which he had lost in the sand. However, Truus soon showed her mettle as mistress of the house by raising her voice commandingly and rapping loudly on the table until some semblance of order was restored. The youngsters were dispatched upstairs, where Nurse Frantzen, Truus’ governess and the English nursemaid ran from room to room fetching out dry socks and vests from the wardrobes while Truus distributed bath towels. The little ones were stripped of their wet clothes, and no one heeded the thunderstorm raging outside. Marianne and Henrietta went into their room and shut the door behind them for some privacy, as everyone was running in and out, including Papa and the uncles. Willy and Gustaaf were told to help themselves, and Truus threw them towels and fresh underwear, telling them to make sure they dried themselves properly, not forgetting their backs, chests, and between their toes, while she fetched them socks and shoes. Kitty was still crying; she could be heard in another room, along with Catherine and her governess, who were conversing in English.
‘Oh, Tina, do take off your wet clothes,’ cried Mathilda, helping Johan while her mama took charge of Nico and Frédérique saw to Madeleine. Tina, however, sat on a chair and refused to budge. Just then Eline appeared, bearing a complete set of clothes for her favourite.
‘Now, now, Tina dear!’ said Eline indulgently, ‘your poor mama is quite run off her feet, so you mustn’t be cross. Will you let me help you instead? What do you say?’
Tina nodded her head, pouting like a little princess. Eline crouched down on the floor, unfastened the child’s mud-spattered button boots and pulled off her soaked stockings.
‘My pretty poppet, you’re shivering!’ she cried out in dismay, and rubbed the child’s clammy feet and legs with a rough towel until they were warm and rosy once more. Tina wriggled her toes in Eline’s lap, happy again. She untied her belt and began to unbutton her blouse.
‘Good girl! Go on, take your clothes off, and I promise I’ll brush your hair afterwards. You’ll like that, won’t you?’
‘Will you do my hair? Will you put it up like yours?’
‘Gracious no, poppet, I shall make you a braid, the way you always wear it.’
‘Oh please, please, Eline, put it up, won’t you? I want to look like a proper lady!’
‘All right then, if you do as I say. Quick, Tina, let’s get you undressed first.’
Eline made her stand up on the chair and proceeded to undress as if she were a doll, while Tina prattled on about the White Hollow and how frightened they had been by the lightning. She rubbed the slight, shivering body until it glowed all over, after which the little girl flung her arms around Eline’s neck and squeezed with all her might. Eline had to laugh.
‘You have a gift for child-care, Eline! It’s as though you’ve been doing it all your life.’ exclaimed Mathilda with gratitude, for she was still occupied with Johan. Madame van Erlevoort and Frédérique looked over their shoulders and smiled at Eline. Willy and Gustaaf were teasing Hetty, who had been supplied with dry stockings at last and was now pulling them on in the middle of the floor, which was littered with shoes, wet stockings, discarded underclothing and towels.
Visibly pleased with her success, Eline set about helping Tina to don her fresh set of clothing.
‘How nice you look in your clean vest! Wait, I’ll give you a tickle, shall I? There you go: lift this foot, now the other one, so we can get your bloomers on. Dear me, if you go on wriggling like this and waving your arms you’ll muss my hair. Fasten your buttons, go on, I know you can do it! Or did you think I was going to do everything for you? Ah, where’s the hairbrush? Wait, I’ll go and fetch a comb!’
‘And my red hair-ribbon, too!’ called Tina.
Eline ran off, pausing on her way to tie a large bow in Marianne’s sash.
Tina grew impatient and clamoured for Eline to hurry.
‘Here I am!’ said Eline, returning, and began to pile Tina’s hair on the top of her head in ladylike fashion, much to everyone’s amusement. Tina was thrilled, but meekly submitted to having her thick brown tresses taken down again and tied into braids.
‘That’s better! You’re as pretty as a picture!’ said Eline, combing the fringe down over the little girl’s forehead.
‘Now children, off you go!’ said Truus, regaining her confidence, and they all trooped down the stairs.
‘Eline was so good with Tina,’ Madame van Erlevoort said to Truus in an undertone. ‘You should have seen them together! Such a pretty sight! Oh, I can’t tell you how relieved I am that they are all back home again, safe and sound!’
. .
Bedtime was early at De Horze; by half-past ten all was still. Eline had spent an hour chatting with Frédérique in her bedroom, very happy to perceive the growing sympathy between them. Freddie was already under the covers and Eline had perched on the side of the bed while they exchanged confidences about all kinds of subjects, stifling their occasional giggles so as not to disturb the silence prevailing in the house. At length Eline had returned to her room on tiptoe, and now she was alone at last. She lit her candle and slowly began to undress, her lips curved in an unconscious, happy smile. She paused a moment, sunk in thought, with her hair hanging loose about her bare shoulders. There was nothing else that she wanted, nothing at alclass="underline" she had simply everything she could wish for.
She opened the window and looked outside. The rain had stopped and the air was fragrant with moist foliage. The sky was clear, wiped clean of leaden clouds but for some lingering streaks, from which rose a brilliant crescent moon. The far-flung fields lay muffled in silence; a lone windmill held aloft a dark, motionless sail, starkly defined against the pale sheen of the evening sky. The ditches glittered like strips of metal, and a scented freshness emanated like a gentle sigh from the slumbering landscape. Eline leant out of the window, hugging her bare arms. She felt as if that soft sigh of freshness had sweetened all her thoughts with the fragrance of wild flowers, banishing the stale, sickly smell of her former state of mind. It was like inhaling the heady perfume of musk and opopanax, and she felt very young, younger than she had ever felt before, and oh! — of this she was certain — never had she been in love as she was now, never! Her Otto! Thinking of him she felt no need whatsoever to conjure up some idealised image of him; she thought of him as he was, manly and strong in his good-natured simplicity, with one single thought governing his mind: the thought of her. His love was so rich, so full, so all-encompassing. And hers was growing by the day, she believed. . no, it couldn’t grow any further, that would be impossible! No further wishes, no concerns about the future; it would unfold of its own accord, a perspective tinged with a golden glow! Nothing but the stillness of that lake into which her soul had glided, nothing but the peace and love of that blue ecstasy! Nothing but that. . She could not imagine what more a human being could wish for.
Only, there was one tiny blemish in all that clear expanse of blue, an inkling of fear that change might yet come! It was so very long since she had prayed, and she was unsure how to go about it, whether she should say the words aloud or just think them. Indeed, she no longer knew whether she believed in God, she no longer knew what she believed, but now, at this moment, she dearly wished to pray that it might remain as it was now, that nothing would ever change — oh, for that gentle happiness, that tranquillity of mind, that blue to remain with her for ever!