"Yes, and then there are others where there's music and singing. They are nice, and moral too. They are called operas; and people who are entirely respectable go there. You see, mother, there's nothing bad about it; and we ought not to be so narrow. The old Greeks had comedies, and our professors still study them."
"Walter's pictures are from real comedies; but I can't tell all the details now. I will only say there are good comedies."
"You must tell Juffrouw Laps. She always says----"
"And what does she know about it? She never saw a comedy in her life."
That was the truth; but it was just as true of the Pieterse family--with the exception of Leentje.
One afternoon Leentje had complained of a terrible headache and had left off sewing and gone out. Later it was learned that she had not spent the evening with her mother; and then there was a perfect storm. But Leentje would not say where she had been that night. "That night" was Juffrouw Pieterse's expression, though she knew that the girl was at home by eleven o'clock. Leentje betrayed nothing. She had promised the dressmaker next door not to say anything; for the dressmaker had to be very careful, because her husband was a hypocrite.
In Leentje's work-box was found a mutilated program; and then one day she began to sing a song she had never sung before--"I'm full of honor, I'm full of honor; oh, yes, I'm a man of honor!"
And then it was all out! She had been to the Elandstraat and had seen the famous Ivan Gras in a comedy!
Leentje began to cry and was going to promise never to do so again, when, to her amazement, she was told that there was nothing wrong in it, and that even the greatest professors went to see comedies.
It was "The Child of Love," by Kotzebue, that had greeted her astonished eyes.
"There was music, Juffrouw, and they played beautifully; and then the curtain went up, and there was a great forest, and a woman wept under a tree. There was a Baron who made her son a prisoner, because he was a hunter--but he spoke so nice, and his mother, too. The Baron said he was master on his place, and that he would punish such thieves. He was in a great rage. And then the mother said--no, somebody else came and said--but then the curtain went down. The dressmaker bought waffles that were being passed around, and we drank chocolate. The dressmaker said that every day wasn't a feast day. A man sat behind us and explained everything and took our cups when they were empty. Then the band played, 'Pretty girls and pretty flowers.'"
