AN INTERLUDE AND AN APPLICATION.
LOFTY CANOPY OF GREEN.--BENT U EEN DICHTER?--THE CLOTURE.--AN INTERLUDE
AND AN APPLICATION.
"So our friend Jack had to ask always for the sounds of the words. That
would be right good for him," said Bart, "and should have made his talk
intelligible."
"Well of course it did," said O'Neill. "They always understood the
+words+ I used. It was the applications I made that hampered them.
"I had great trouble with a chatty old gentleman in the tram one
morning going down to Scheveningen. It was just seven--I was hurrying
to get an early dip, and he seemed bent on the same errand.
Attracted by my blazer and towel he opened conversation about
sea-bathing, and then proceeded to discourse on the beauties of the
landscape. He seemed chilled by the poverty of my adjectives, though
I worked them vigorously.
"Deze weg vin je zeker wel mooi?" he said at last, looking up at the
arched green overhead. "Of houd U niet van de natuur?"
"Ja, zeker wel!" I hastened to assure him. "Ik houd er erg van--Het is
prachtig! Net een tunnel van geboomte--van loofgroen."
Then observing the pleasure my encomiums gave him, I ventured on
something a little more lofty and poetic. My landlady had occasionally
talked about a "canopy," which, so far as I had understood her, I took
to mean the vast cupola of hangings over the old-fashioned bed in my
lodging. She used to say that the canopy was new and beautiful, and
needed constant dusting.
I had always agreed to this, but never dreamt of hunting up a word that
to all intents and purposes seemed the same as in English.
"Indrukwekkend schoon," I added. "Wij zitten, als het ware, onder een
canopey (that was my landlady's pronunciation) van bladeren."
"Een kanape, mijnheer?"
"Ja," said I, "een verheven canopy, niet waar?
Wij zeilen onder een groene canopy--verbazend--magnifique!"
"Hoe bedoelt U dat?" said the old gentleman more and more puzzled, and
determined to find out my meaning.
"Wij zitten hier, niet waar?" I began slowly; then pointing to the roof
of green over our heads, I explained: "dat alles vormt een prachtige
canopy boven ons heen. Zeker wel?"
"Ik geloof het niet", said the chatty old gentleman. "De tram gelijkt
ook niet op een kanape; of meent U dat?"
"De tram niet," I exclaimed, "maar de boomen; kijk; het gebladerte, het
geboomte en de hooge dak dat ze maken--dat alles zoo schitterend groen,
dat is, mijns bedunkens, niets dan een canopy, uitgehangen zoo te
spreken, over ons heen, in uitgestrekte schoonheid."
The old gentleman surely was a little dull. He said, "Ik begrijp niet
goed wat u zegt. Waar is de canape? Of bedoelt U soms een badstoel--op
het strand?"
"Nee", I answered with a deprecating smile; "Ik sprak maar poetisch.
+Verheven+", I added with a wave of my towel towards the greenery
overhead.
"He," said he with friendly interest, "bent U een dichter? Ik had U
voor een schilder gehouden," he explained with a glance at my blazer.
"Ik--een dichter!" I returned modestly. "Neen; niet erg. Op een kleine
schaal, misschien." +On a small scale+, I meant to say; but I must have
mangled the +sch+ badly, for he didn't catch the point, and I heard him
mutter: "Een sjaal! een sjaal, EN een kanape!!"
"Ja zeker, mijnheer," I reasoned; "U ziet het zelf voor U--daar onder
de boomen--dat IS hier een canopy--"
"Pardon", he interrupted, "dat is niet waar. Dat zijn gewone houten
banken," he persisted argumentatively. "En wat bedoelt U met een sjaal?"
How pertinacious the old gentleman was! He stuck to me like a leech. I
couldn't shake him off; and we were still far off the Kurhaus.
It was clearly a case for Boyton's conversational method.
"Mejuffrouw!" I said firmly, leaning towards him, "Ik ken Uwe
edelmoedigheid genoeg. Maar"--and here I added two nice little local
idioms from the rich stores of my memory--"maar--U komt pas te kijken."
That told him he wasn't looking at the matter in true philosophic
perspective.
But this I followed up, in a more authoritative way, with the assurance
that I didn't at all agree with him. "Waarempeltjes," I whispered with
elaborate distinctness, "ik heb het land aan je!"
The chatty old gentleman got off at the next +halte+.