i8
He sprinkled sand on the ink, blew it off, and
gathered up his accounts. Before he went upstairs
he drew the blind on one side and stood for a moment
in front of the dark window looking out.
When he came down at daybreak, the daily
woman was on her knees in front of the stove. She
merely turned her head and said : c Good morning,
Werendonk, the baby's arrived, thank God. I only
wish Stien hadn't heard that noise in the yard just
last night. There's no need to be afraid of anything
if your trust is in the Lord, but to hear old women
cackling in the yard, when there can't be any old
women there, that's not good. You never can
tell what lies hidden in the future. And whatever
way you look at it, it's not nice to be thinking of
eerie things just when a child's beginning its life.'
He told her not to talk rubbish, and took down
his cap and his coat from the peg. From the shop
he could hear her talking to Frans, who had come
down, and beginning to tell him about the strange
sounds the maid-servant had heard in the yard.
He went out in the dim morning light; he saw at
once that he would have to walk carefully for the
uneven cobble-stones were slippery ; it was freezing
and along the front steps there was a white line.
It must be colder than he himself felt it to be. Just
in front of him there was a milkman who had pulled
the flaps of his cap over his ears, and at the end of
Little Houtstraat a man was standing beating his