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said nothing, he uttered no reproof, though there
was much he could have said. He thought Stien
was extravagant with a number of things, the whole
house smelt too strongly of hearthstone or soft-soap,
but he said nothing. He frequently felt annoyed
with Frans too. Sometimes he talked a lot, in a
slow monotonous voice, about things of no impor-
tance, at other times he refused to open his mouth,
or twitched his lips and blinked his eyes. Weren-
donk thought it would be better for him if he went
out more, but when he told him to go, Frans stayed
away longer than he could be spared. That again
irritated him, because he felt the need to go out him-
self. This feeling was so strong sometimes that even
on a Saturday afternoon he called Stien to help in
the shop, saying, for no reason that he knew of, that
probably he wouldn't be back to supper. He
talked, too, about being obliged to have an assistant
again.
When the neighbours saw him coining out of the
door, his face turned upwards, they knew whither
he was bound, and each one of them had something
to say about it; whether it was any good looking
there, whether it wasn't sad that a good man should
put himself out for a good-for-nothing, who could
come to no good in any case.
In the early winter days Werendonk went at least
twice a week to one of the ale-houses that Klaas, the
son of his next-door neighbour, Minke, or Hendrik,