"We just wanted to tell you that we are very respectable, don't you see?"
"And then as you said you never got any pocket-money----"
"Yes, Walter--and don't you know? Because our papa is so respectable--when winter comes you can see how he looks after the orphans."
"Yes, and he rings at every door. And--and--we are afraid, that you----"
"That you didn't get it honestly. That's it," said Franz, sticking another mint-drop into his mouth, perhaps to brace himself up.
It was out at last. Poor, miserable Walter.
"And on that account, Walter, we would rather not keep the money, but just divide now--equally, as we all agreed."
"Yes," cried Gustave, "divide equally. The work--we--you understand?"
They divided the profits. And the Hallemans were sleek about it. Twenty-four stivers; three into twenty-four goes eight times, therefore----
"Don't you see," explained Gustave, "we couldn't do it, because our papa is a deacon."
"Yes--and our tobacco-box, even if it isn't pure silver, it's just like silver."
My lack of faith in the extreme respectability of the Hallemans is based upon the foregoing story; and I am inclined to think that all this "respectability" of which Walter heard so much at home was only an excuse on his mother's part to get him out of the way. For there was a lack of room. If she had wanted to use Walter about the house, it is questionable if she had discovered anything especially respectable about those boys.
Many laws and most customs have their origin in a "lack of room"--in the intellect, in one's character, in the house or flat, in the fields, in the city.
This applies to the preference for the right hand--a result of crowding at the table--to the institution of marriage, and to many things lying between these extremes.
We will not try to explain further this fruitful principle of "limitation of space." Walter knew the fruit of it, even if he failed to recognize the origin. He was not worried so much by the mere coming home as by the punishment he expected to receive as soon as that New Testament should be missed. He had returned from his little excursion into the country with Glorioso, and now in Amsterdam again the memory of his recent offense--or shall I say the anticipation of what was coming?--lay heavily on his mind.