It was more difficult for him to decide what he would say to Femke.
He made up various little speeches in the manner of Floris the Fifth. In case Femke shouldn't like them he was going to say, "Why, that is from our greatest poet."
And then he would ask her to explain a lot of mysterious words in Floris that he hadn't understood--for instance, "fast fellow," "coverture," "chastity," and others.
Walter's development was determined by his desire to know things. His feeling for Femke, which was hardly real love, was subordinated to his thirst for knowledge. He knew that he couldn't get much from her, especially book-learning; but it was a pleasure merely to discuss things with her, even if she knew nothing about them.
He was curious to know all that she might have to tell him, or to ask him; for no doubt she too had been saving up her impressions for her first friend. But, alas! he was not so certain of her friendship! True, when he was sick she had asked about him; but perhaps she was just passing by, and thought how easy it would be to ring the bell and ask, "How is Walter?"
Still it had taken courage to do it. What would Mungo Park have said if he had seen him hesitating before the gate! Walter knew that wasn't the way to conquer the world.
And if anybody had asked Mungo Park: "What do you want in Africa?"
Well, he would have answered. Such a traveller in such a book is never embarrassed.
Then Walter began to address all sorts of remarks to negro kings that he had conquered with lance and sword. All the women kissed his hand as he rode by on his bay, with fiery red caparison. He inquired patronizingly after those good girls who had nursed him in his illness, "because the strange white man was far from mother and sisters and had no home." He would reward them princely.
In all this conquered land Walter was king and Femke was--queen! How magnificent the big red velvet cloak would look on her--and the gold crown!
Conquering continents was easy. He was scarcely thirteen; and yet he was afraid that somebody might get ahead of him while he was being detained by the treacherous Pennewip with declensions and conjugations. And, then there were still more things to learn before one could be king, even of a small country. Pocket-change would have to be increased too, for, with all possible economy, six doits a week were insufficient. The Hallemans--well, they had more; but fortunately they were not thinking of Africa. For the present he was not afraid of any competition from that quarter; but other children, nearer the "grown-up" stage, might get the idea in their heads! And then, what would he do to keep his mother from guessing when he made his trips into the "interior" longer, and stayed out later than was allowed by the regulations of the Pieterse household?