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what a customer said to him, he swept the money
across the counter as though it were dust, frequently
he frowned and looked up at the top panes of the
window, and stroked the back of his head. And
sometimes Frans thought he noticed the suspicion
of a grin on his face. It occurred to Jansje, too,
that there was something different about him today,
he kicked the shop door to so roughly, he stamped
so loudly on the steps. And he did everything as
though he were in a hurry. Werendonk observed
how rapidly he served in the shop. In the early
evening Floris spent a long time in his bedroom,
and when he came down and Werendonk asked
him where he was going, the answer he received
was : t To the Bible reading.' He said : e But there
is no reading this evening.5 But Floris went out
without saying anything further. He came home
late, pale and exhausted. And on the following
morning Werendonk heard that Wouters had seen
him hurrying along the road to Bloemendaal. He
asked him what he had been doing so far away,
and the answer was : * Oh, I was just going for a
walk.9 Afterwards everyone remembered that he
had hardly sat down, he was on his feet all day,
rushing about in a way that was foreign to him.
Latterly he had often neglected to go to Church,
and now there came a Sunday when he went to
the Great Church in the morning and evening, and
furthermore, so it was said, in the afternoon to the