[An old-fashioned office. Left, office door, separated from the
main office by a wooden railing. Between this door and railing are
two benches; an old cupboard. In the background; three windows with
view of the sunlit sea. In front of the middle window a standing
desk and high stool. Right, writing table with telephone--a safe,
an inside door. On the walls, notices of wreckage, insurance, maps,
etc. In the center a round iron stove.]
[Kaps, Bos and Mathilde discovered.]
MATHILDE. Clemens!----
KAPS. [Reading, with pipe in his mouth.] "The following wreckage,
viz.: 2,447 ribs, marked Kusta; ten sail sheets, marked 'M. S. G.'"
MATHILDE. Stop a moment, Kaps.
KAPS. "Four deck beams, two spars, five"----
MATHILDE. [Giving him a tap.] Finish your reading later.
KAPS. Yes, Mevrouw.
BOS. [Impatiently.] I have no time now.
MATHILDE. Then make time. I have written the circular for the tower
bell. Say, ring up the Burgomaster.
BOS. [Ringing impatiently.] Quick! Connect me with the
Burgomaster! Yes! This damn bother while I'm busy. Up to my ears
in--[Sweetly.] Are you there? My little wife asks----
MATHILDE. If Mevrouw will come to the telephone about the circular.
BOS. [Irritably.] Yes! yes! Not so long drawn--[Sweetly.] If Mevrouw
will come to the telephone a moment? Just so, Burgomaster,--the
ladies--hahaha! That's a good one. [Curtly.] Now? What do you want
to say? Cut it short. [To Mathilde.]
MATHILDE. Here, read this circular out loud. Then it can go to the
printers.
BOS. [Angrily.] That whole sheet! Are you crazy? Do you think I
haven't anything on my mind! That damned----
MATHILDE. Keep your temper! Kaps!----
BOS. Go to hell! [Sweetly.] Yes, Mevrouw. Tomorrow. My wife? No,
she can't come to the telephone herself, she doesn't know
how. [Irritably.] Where is the rag? Hurry up! [Reaches out hand for
paper. Mathilde hands it to him.] My wife has written the circular for
the tower bell. Are you listening? [Reads.] "Date, postmark, MM." What
did you say? You would rather have L. S.? Yes, yes, quite right. Do you
hear? [Reads.] "You are no doubt acquainted with the new church."--She
says, "No," the stupid! I am reading, Mevrouw, again. "You are no
doubt acquainted with the new church. The church has, as you know,
a high tower; that high tower points upward, and that is good, that is
fortunate, and truly necessary for many children of our generation"----
MATHILDE. Read more distinctly.
BOS. [To Mathilde.] Shut your mouth. Pardon, I was speaking to
my bookkeeper. [In telephone.] Yes--yes--ha, ha, ha--[Reads again
from paper.] "But that tower could do something else that also is
good. Yes, and very useful. It can mark the time for us children of the
times. That it does not do. It stands there since 1882 and has never
answered to the question, 'What time is it?' That it should do. It
was indeed built for it, there are four places visible for faces;
for years in all sorts of ways"--Did you say anything? No?--"for years
the wish has been expressed by the surrounding inhabitants that they
might have a clock--About three hundred guilders are needed. Who will
help? The Committee, Mevrouw"--What did you say? Yes, you know the
names, of course. Yes, very nicely worded? Yes--Yes--All the ladies of
the Committee naturally sign for the same amount, a hundred guilders
each? Yes--Yes--Very well--My wife will be at home, Mevrouw. [Rings off
angrily.] Damned nonsense!--a hundred guilders gone to the devil! What
is it to you if there's a clock on the damn thing or not?
MATHILDE. [Turns away.] I'll let you fry in your own fat.
BOS. She'll be here in her carriage in quarter of an hour.
MATHILDE. Bejour! bejour! If you drank less grog in the evenings
you wouldn't have such a bad temper in the mornings. Just hand me
five guilders.
BOS. No, no! You took five guilders out of my purse this morning
while I was asleep. I can keep no----
MATHILDE. I take a rix dollar! What an infamous lie. Just one
guilder! Bah, what a man, who counts his money before he goes to bed!
BOS. Bejour! bejour!
MATHILDE. Very well, don't give it--Then I can treat the Burgomaster's
wife to a glass of gin presently--three jugs of old gin and not a
single bottle of port or sherry! [Bos angrily throws down two rix
dollars.] Say, am I your servant? If it wasn't for me you wouldn't
be throwing rix dollars around!--Bah! [Goes off angrily.]
KAPS. [Reading.] IJmuiden, 24 December--Today there were four sloops
in the market with 500 to 800 live and 1,500 to 2,100 dead haddock
and some--live cod--The live cod brought 7 1/4--the dead----
BOS. Haven't you anything else to do?
KAPS. The dead haddock brought thirteen and a half guilders a basket.
BOS. [Knocking on the desk.] I know all that! Here, take hold! Take
your book--turn to the credit page of the Expectation----
KAPS. [Looking.] The Jacoba? no, the Queen Wilhelmina? no, the
Mathilde? no--the Good Hope?--We can whistle for her. The Expectation?
BOS. What was the gross total?
KAPS. Fourteen hundred and forty-three guilders and forty-seven cents.
BOS. I thought so. How could you be so ungodly stupid, to deduct four
guilders, 88, for the widows and orphans' fund?
KAPS. Let's see. [Figuring.]--1,443--3 per cent off--that's
1,400--that's gross three hundred and 87 guilders--yes, it should be
three guilders, 88, instead of four, 88.
BOS. [Rising.] If you're going into your dotage, Jackass! you can
go. Your errors are always on the wrong side!
KAPS. [With a knowing laugh.] There might be something to say against
that, Meneer--you didn't go after me when, when----
BOS. Now, that'll do, that'll do!----
KAPS. And that was an error with a couple of big ciphers after it. [Bos
goes off impatiently at right.] Hehehe! It all depends on what side----
[Looks around, sees Bos is gone, pokes up the fire; fills his pipe from
Bos's tobacco jar, carefully steals a couple of cigars from his box.]
SIMON. [Entering.] Is Bos here?
KAPS. Mynheer Bos, eh?--no.
SIMON. Is he out?
KAPS. Can't you give me the message?
SIMON. I ask you, is he out?
KAPS. Yes.
SIMON. No tidings?
KAPS. No. Has this running back and forth begun again? Meneer said
that when he got news, he----
SIMON. It will be nine weeks tomorrow.
KAPS. The Jacoba came in after fifty-nine days' lost time.
SIMON. You are--You know more than you let on.
KAPS. Are you loaded already?
SIMON. Not a drop.
KAPS. Then it's time--I know more, eh? I'm holding off the ships by
ropes, eh?
SIMON. I warned you folks when that ship lay in the docks. What were
the words I spoke then, eh?
KAPS. [Shrugging his shoulders.] All tales on your part for a glass
of gin!
SIMON. You lie. You was there, and the Miss was there. I says,
"The ship is rotten, that caulking was damn useless. That a floating
coffin like that"----
KAPS. Good! that's what you said. I don't deny it. What of it? Are
you so clever that when you're half drunk----
SIMON. [Angry.] That's a damned lie!
KAPS. Not drunk then, are you such an authority, you a shipmaster's
assistant, that when you say "no," and the owner and the Insurance
Company say "yes," my employer must put his ship in the dry docks?
SIMON. Damned rot! I warned you! And now, I say--now, I say--that
if Mees, my daughter's betrothed, not to speak of the others, if
Mees--there will be murder.
KAPS. You make me laugh! Go get yourself a dram and talk sense.
[Enter Marietje.]
SIMON. Better have stayed outside. No tidings.
MARIETJE. [Softly sobbing.] No tidings.
SIMON. Murder will come of it. [Both off.]
BOS. [Enters.] Who's here?
KAPS. Simon and his daughter. Threats! Are you going out?
BOS. Threats! Is the fellow insane? I'll be back in ten
minutes. Whoever comes must wait.
KAPS. He spoke of----
BOS. I don't care to hear! [Off.]
KAPS. [Goes back to his desk; the telephone rings. He solemnly listens
at the receiver.] Can't understand you. I am the bookkeeper. Mynheer
will be back in ten minutes. Ring up again.
[Enter Saart.]
SAART. Good day, my dear.
KAPS. You here again? What do you want?
SAART. I want you--Jesus! What a cold wind! May I warm my hands
a moment?
KAPS. Stay on that side of the railing.
SAART. Sweet beast! You make me tired. Mynheer Bos just went round the
corner. [Warms herself.] No use asking about the Hope. Jesus! Seven
families. How lucky that outside of the children there were three
unmarried men on board. Nothing washed ashore anywhere?
KAPS. No, no!
SAART. Now, don't eat me up.
KAPS. I wish you'd stay behind the railing. What do you want?
SAART. [Looking in his pocket.] Look out! Or you'll break Meneer's
cigars. Old thief! [He smiles.] Kaps, do you want to make a guilder?
KAPS. That depends.
SAART. I'm engaged to Bol, the skipper.
KAPS. I congratulate you!
SAART. He's lying here, with a load of peat for the city. Now, how
can I marry him?
KAPS. How can you?
SAART. I can't; because they don't know if my husband's dead.
KAPS. The legal limit is----
SAART. I know that much myself.
KAPS. You must summons him, 'pro Deo,' three times in the papers and
if he doesn't come then, and that he'll not do, for there aren't any
more ghosts in the world, then you can----
SAART. Now, if you'd attend to this little matter, Bol and I would
always be grateful to you.
KAPS. That is lawyer's business. You must go to the city for that.
SAART. Gracious, what botheration! When your common sense tells you
I haven't seen Jacob in three years and the----
[Cobus enters, trembling with agitation.]
COB. There are tidings! There are tidings!
KAPS. Tidings? What are you telling us?
COB. [Almost crying.] There must be tidings of the boys--of--of--the
Hope.
KAPS. Nothing! [Friendlier.] Now, there is no use in your coming
to this office day after day. I haven't any good news to give you,
the bad you already know. Sixty-two days----
COB. The water bailiff received a telegram. Ach, ach, ach; Meneer Kaps,
help us out of this uncertainty. My sister--and my niece--are simply
insane with grief. [Trembling violently.]
KAPS. On my word of honor. Are you running away again?
COB. My niece is sitting alone at home--my sister is at the Priest's,
cleaning house. There must be something--there must be something.
KAPS. Who made you believe that?
COB. The water bailiff's clerk said--said--Ach, dear God----[Off.]
SAART. Perhaps he is right.
KAPS. Everything is possible.
SAART. Has Meneer Bos any hope?
KAPS. Hope? Nine weeks! that old ship! after that storm--all things
are possible. No, I wouldn't give a cent for it. Provisions for
six weeks. If they had run into an English harbor, we would have
had tidings.
CLEMENTINE. [Enters.] Good day, Saart. Are there visitors inside, Kaps?
KAPS. [Looking through window.] The Burgomaster's carriage. Committee
meeting for the clock. A new span. I wish I had their money.
CLEMENTINE. [Laying her sketch book on Kaps's desk.] I saw Cobus go
by. Poor thing! How he has aged. I hardly recognized him. [Opening
the sketch book.] Look. That's the way he was three months ago,
hale and jolly. You may look, too, Kaps.
KAPS. No, Miss, I haven't the time.
SAART. Daantje's death was a blow to him--you always saw them together,
always discussing. Now he hasn't a friend in the "Home"; that makes
a big difference.
CLEMENTINE. Do you recognize these?
SAART. Well, that's Kneir, that's Barend with the basket on his back,
and that's--[The telephone bell rings. Clementine closes her book.]
KAPS. Meneer is out. They rang once before.
CLEMENTINE. [Listening at telephone.] Yes!--Papa isn't here. How long
will he be, Kaps?
KAPS. Two or three minutes.
CLEMENTINE. [Startled.] What did you say? A hatch marked
47--and--[Trembling.]--I don't understand you. [Screams and lets the
receiver fall.]
KAPS. What's that? What's that?
CLEMENTINE. [Painfully shocked.] I don't dare listen--Oh, oh!
KAPS. Was that the water bailiff?
CLEMENTINE. [Passionately.] Barend washed ashore. Oh God, now it
is ended!
SAART. Barend?----Barend?----
CLEMENTINE. A telegram from Nieuwediep. A hatch--and a corpse----
[Enter Bos.]
BOS. What's going on here? Why are you crying?
KAPS. Tidings of the Good Hope.
BOS. Tidings?
KAPS. The water bailiff is on the 'phone.
BOS. The water bailiff?--Step aside--Go along, you! What are you
gaping at?
SAART. I--I--[Goes timidly off.]
BOS. [Ringing.] Hello! Who is that? The water bailiff? A
telegram from Nieuwediep? North of the Hook? I don't understand
a word! Stop your howling! a hatch, you say? 47?--Well,
that's damned--miserable--that! the corpse--advanced stage of
decomposition! Barend--mustered in as oldest boy! Recognized by
who? by--oh!--The Expectation has come into Nieuwediep disabled? And
did Skipper Maatsuiker recognize him? Earrings? Yes, yes, silver
earrings. No, never mind that. So it isn't necessary to send any
one from here for the identification? Yes, damned sad--yes--yes--we
are in God's hand--Yes--yes--I no longer had any doubts--thank
you--yes--I'd like to get the official report as soon as possible. I
will inform the underwriters, bejour! [Hangs up the receiver.] I'm
simply dead! twelve men!
KAPS. Barend? Kneirtje's son? Washed ashore? That's--that's a wonder. I
never expected to hear of the ship again. With the Clementine.
BOS. [Angrily.] Yes--yes--yes--yes--[To Clementine.] Go inside to
your mother! What stupidity to repeat what you heard in that woman's
presence. It won't be five minutes now till half the village is
here! Don't you understand me? You sit there, God save me, and take
on as if your lover was aboard----
CLEMENTINE. Why didn't you listen? [Sobs softly.]
BOS. Listen!
CLEMENTINE. When Simon, the shipbuilder's assistant----
BOS. The fellow was drunk.
CLEMENTINE. [Firmly.] He was not!
BOS. He was, too! And if he hadn't been, what right have you to stick
your nose into matters you don't understand?
CLEMENTINE. Dear God, now I am also guilty----
BOS. [Angrily.] Guilty? Guilty! Have the novels you read gone to
your head? Guilty! Are you possessed, to use those words after such
an accident?
CLEMENTINE. He said that the ship was a floating coffin. Then I heard
you say that in any case it would be the last voyage for the Hope.
BOS. [Angrily at first.] That damned boarding school; those damned
boarding school fads! Walk if you like through the village like a fool,
sketching the first rascal or beggar you meet! But don't blab out
things you can be held to account for. A floating coffin! Say, rather,
a drunken authority--The North, of Pieterse, and the Surprise and the
Willem III and the Young John. I can keep on naming them. Half of the
fishing fleet and half the merchant fleet are floating coffins. Did
you hear that, Kaps?
KAPS. [Timidly.] No, Meneer, I don't hear anything.
BOS. If you had asked me: "Father, how is this?" I would have explained
it to you. But you conceited young people meddle with everything and
more, too! What stronger proof is there than the yearly inspection of
the ships by the underwriters? Do you suppose that when I presently
ring up the underwriter and say to him, "Meneer, you can plank down
fourteen hundred guilders"--that he does that on loose grounds? You
ought to have a face as red as a buoy in shame for the way you flapped
out your nonsense! Nonsense, I say! Nonsense; that might take away
my good name, if I wasn't so well known.
CLEMENTINE. [Sadly.] If I were a ship owner--and I heard----
BOS. God preserve the fishery from an owner who makes drawings and
cries over pretty vases! I stand as a father at the head of a hundred
homes. Business is business. When you get sensitive you go head over
heels. What, Kaps? [Kaps makes a motion that he cannot hear.] Now,
go to your mother. The Burgomaster's wife is making a call.
KAPS. Here is the muster roll. [Reading.] Willem Hengst, aged
thirty-seven, married, four children----
BOS. Wait a moment till my daughter----
CLEMENTINE. I won't speak another word.
KAPS. [Reading on.] Jacob Zwart, aged thirty-five years, married,
three children. Gerrit Plas, aged twenty-five years, married, one
child. Geert Vermeer, unmarried, aged twenty-six years. Nellis Boom,
aged thirty-five years, married, seven children. Klaas Steen, aged
twenty-four years, married. Solomon Bergen, aged twenty-five years,
married, one child. Mari Stad, aged forty-five years, married. Mees,
aged nineteen years. Jacob Boom, aged twenty years. Barend Vermeer,
aged nineteen years. Pietje Stappers, aged twelve years.
BOS. [Cast down.] Seven homes.
CLEMENTINE. Sixteen children.
[Enter Truus and Marietje.]
TRUUS. [Panting.] Are there tidings? Tidings of my little son? [Wild
despair.] Ach, God! Ach, God; don't make me unhappy, Meneer!----
BOS. I'm sorry, Mrs. Stappers----
MARIETJE. [Shrieking.] It can't be! It can't be! You lie!--It isn't
possible!----
BOS. [Gently.] The Burgomaster at Nieuwediep has telegraphed the water
bailiff. Barend Vermeer was washed ashore. You know what that means,
and a hatch of the 47----
TRUUS. [Loudly.] Oh, Mother Mary, must I lose that child, too? that
lamb of twelve years! [With a whimpering cry.] Oh, oh, oh, oh! Oh,
oh, oh, oh!--Pietje--Pietje----
MARIETJE. [Bewildered.] Then--Then--[Bursts into a hysterical
laugh.] Hahaha!--Hahaha!----
BOS. Give her a glass of water.
MARIETJE. [Striking the glass from Clementine's hand.] Go away! Go
away! [Falling on her knees, her hands catching hold of the railing
gate.] Let me die!--Let me die, please, dear God, dear God!
CLEMENTINE. [Sobbing.] Come Marietje, be calm; get up.
TRUUS. On his first voyage. And so brave; as he stood there, waving,
when the ship--[Sobs loudly.]
BOS. It can't be helped, Truus. It is a visitation. There hasn't
been a storm like that in years. Think of Hengst with four children,
and Jacob and Gerrit--And, although it's no consolation, I will hand
you your boy's wages today, if you like. Both of you go home now and
resign yourselves to the inevitable--take her with you--she seems----
MARIETJE. [With trembling sobs.] I don't want to go home. I want to
die, die----
CLEMENTINE. [Supporting her.] Cry, Marietje, cry, poor lamb----
[They go off.]
BOS. [Angrily walking back and forth.] What's the matter with you? Are
you too lazy to put pen to paper today? You needn't answer! Have you
the Widows' and Orphans' fund at hand? Well!
KAPS. [Shuffling to the safe.] The top drawer is still locked. [Bos
throws him the keys.] Oh, thank you. [Opens the safe, shuffles back
to Bos's desk with the book.] If you please, Meneer.
BOS. Ninety-five widows, fourteen old sailors and fishermen.
KAPS. Yes, the fund fell short some time ago. We will have to put in
another appeal.
MATHILDE. [Entering.] Clemens, what a misfortune! The Burgomaster's
wife asks if you will come in for a moment. She sits there crying.
BOS. No! Crying enough here. No time!
MATHILDE. Ach! Ach! Kaps, here is the copy for the circular. Hurry,
do you hear!
BOS. Talk to her about making a public appeal for the unfortunates.
MATHILDE. Yes, but, Clemens, isn't that overdoing it, two begging
parties?
BOS. I will do it myself, then--[Both exit.]
CLEMENTINE. [Enters. Softly weeping.] Kaps! Kaps! [Goes to his desk
and sits down opposite to him.] I feel so miserable----
KAPS. Very unwise, Miss. Many ships go down. The Good Hope scarcely
counts. I have it here. Where is it? where is it? The statement of
Veritas for October--October alone; lost, 105 sailing vessels and
30 steamships--that's a low estimate; fifteen hundred dead in one
month. [Pointing to the sea.] Yes, when you see it as it appears
today, so smooth, with the floating gulls, you wouldn't believe that
it murders so many people.
[Enter Jo and Cobus.]
CLEMENTINE. [To Jo and Cobus, who sit alone in a dazed way.] Come in,
Jo. Jo! [Jo slowly shakes her head.]
COB. [Trembling.] We have just run from home--for Saart just as I
said--just as I said----
[Enter Bos.]
BOS. [To Jo.] Here, sit down. [Shoves a chair by the stove.] You stay
where you are, Cobus. You have no doubt heard?----
JO. [Sobbing.] About Barend? Yes, but Geert! It happens so often that
they get off in row boats.
BOS. I can't give you that consolation. Not only was there a hatch,
but the corpse was in an extreme state of dissolution.
JO. [Anxiously.] Yes! Yes! But if it shouldn't be Barend. Who says
it was Barend?
BOS. Skipper Maatsuiker of the Expectation identified him, and the
earrings.
JO. Maatsuiker? Maatsuiker? And if--he should be mistaken----I've
come to ask you for money, Meneer, so I can go to the Helder myself.
BOS. Come, that's foolish!
JO. [Crying.] Barend must be buried any way.
BOS. The Burgomaster of Nieuwediep will take care of that----
[Enter Simon.]
SIMON. [Drunk.] I--I--heard----[Makes a strong gesture towards Bos.]
BOS. [Nervous vehemence.] Get out, you drunken sot!
SIMON. [Stammering.] I--I--won't murder you. I--I--have no evil
intentions----
BOS. [Trembling.] Send for a policeman, Kaps. Must that drunken
fellow----
SIMON. [Steadying himself by holding to the gate.] No--stay where
you are--I'm going--I--I--only wanted to say how nicely it came
out--with--with--The Good Hope.
BOS. You get out, immediately!
SIMON. Don't come so close to me--never come so close to a man with
a knife----No-o-o-o--I have no bad intentions. I only wanted to say,
that I warned you--when--she lay in the docks.
BOS. You lie, you rascal!
SIMON. Now just for the joke of it--you ask--ask--ask your bookkeeper
and your daughter--who were there----
BOS. [Vehemently.] That's a lie. You're not worth an answer, you sot! I
have nothing to do with you! My business is with your employer. Did
you understand me, Kaps?
SIMON. My employer--doesn't do the caulking himself. [To Kaps, who
has advanced to the gate.] Didn't I warn him?--wasn't you there?
KAPS. [Looking anxiously at Bos.] No, I wasn't there, and even if I
was, I didn't hear anything.
BOS. [To Clementine.] And now, you! Did that drunken sot----
CLEMENTINE. [Almost crying with anxiety.] Papa!
BOS. [Threatening.] As my daughter do you permit----[Grimly.] Answer
me!
CLEMENTINE. [Anxiously.] I don't remember----
SIMON. That's low--that's low--damned low! I said, the ship was
rotten--rotten----
BOS. A drunken man's stories. You're trying to drag in my bookkeeper
and daughter, and you hear----
COB. Yes, but--yes, but--now I remember also----
BOS. By thunder! you warned us too, eh?
COB. No, no, that would be lying. But your daughter--your daughter
says now that she hadn't heard the ship was rotten. And on the second
night of the storm, when she was alone with me at my sister Kneirtje's,
she did say that--that----
CLEMENTINE. [Trembling.] Did I--say----
COB. Yes, that you did! That very evening. These are my own words
to you: "Now you are fibbing, Miss; for if your father knew the Good
Hope was rotten"----
JO. [Springing up wildly, speaking with piercing distinctness.] You,
you lie! You began to cry. You were afraid ships would be lost. I
was there, and Truus was there, and----Oh, you adders!
BOS. [Banging his desk with his fist.] Adders? Adders? You scum! Who
gives you your feed, year in, year out? Haven't you decency enough to
believe us instead of that drunken beggar who reels as he stands there?
JO. [Raving with anger.] Believe you? You! She lies and you lie!
BOS. [Threatening.] Get out of my office!
JO. You had Barend dragged on board by the police; Geert was too
proud to be taken! Thief! thief! [Overwrought, hysterical laugh.] No,
no, you needn't point to your door! We are going. If I staid here
any longer I would spit in your face--spit in your face! [Makes
threatening gesture.]
COB. [Restraining her.] Come--come----
BOS. [After a silence.] For your Aunt's sake I will consider that you
are overwrought; otherwise--otherwise----The Good Hope was seaworthy,
was seaworthy! Have I no loss? Even if the ship was insured? And even
had the fellow warned me--which is a lie, could I, a business man,
take the word of a drunkard who can no longer get a job because he
is unable to handle tools?
SIMON. [Stammering.] I--I told you and him and her--that a floating
coffin like that. That stands fast!
JO. [Bursting out.] Oh! oh! Geert and Barend and Mees and the
others! Oh God, how could you allow it! [Sinks on the chair
sobbing.] Give me the money to go to Nieuwediep myself, then I won't
speak of it any more.
BOS. [Vindictively.] No! Not a red cent! A girl that talks to me as
rudely as you did----
JO. [Confused, crying.] I don't know what I said--and--and--I don't
believe that you--that you--that you would be worse than the devil.
BOS. The water-bailiff says that it isn't necessary to send any one
to Nieuwediep.
JO. [Staggering to the door.] Not necessary! Not necessary! What will
become of me now?----
[Cobus and Simon follow her out.]
[Bos walks back and forth. Kaps creeps up on his stool.]
BOS. [To Clementine.] And you--don't you ever dare to set foot again
in my office.
CLEMENTINE. [With a terrified look.] No, never again. [A long
pause.] Father, I ask myself [Bursts into sobs.] how I can ever again
respect you? Ever again respect myself? [Exits.]
BOS. Crazy! She would be capable of ruining my good name--with
her boarding-school whims. Who ever comes now you send away,
understand? Trash! Rabble! That whole set are no good! That damned
drunkard! That fellow that stinks of gin! [Sound of Jelle's fiddle
outside.] That too? [At the window.] Go on! No, not a cent! [The
music stops.] I am simply worn out. [Falls into his chair, takes
up Clementine's sketch book; spitefully turns the leaves; throws
it on the floor; stoops, jerks out a couple of leaves, tears them
up. Sits in thought a moment, then rings the telephone.] Hello! with
Dirksen--Dirksen, I say, the underwriter! [Waits, looking
sombre.] Hello! Are you there, Dirksen? It's all up with the
Good Hope. A hatch with my mark washed ashore and the body of a
sailor. [Changing to quarrelsome tone.] What do you say? I should
say not! No question of it! Sixty-two days! The probabilities are too
small. [Calmer.] Good! I shall wait for you here at my office. But be
quick about it! Yes, fourteen hundred guilders. Bejour. [Rings off;
at the last words Kneirtje has entered.]
KNEIRTJE. [Absently.] I----[She sinks on the bench, patiently weeping.]
BOS. [At the safe, without seeing her.] Have you mislaid the
policies? You never put a damn thing in its place.
KAPS. [Pointing from his stool.] The policies are higher, behind
the stocks.
BOS. [Snappishly.] All right, shut your mouth, now! [Turning around
with the policies in his hand.] Why don't you knock?
KNEIRTJE. I wanted to----
BOS. [Peevishly.] You've come five minutes too late. That hussy that
lives with you has been in here kicking up such a scandal that I came
near telephoning for the police. [Crossly.] Come in. Close the gate
after you.
KNEIRTJE. [Speaking with difficulty.] Is it true--is it true
that----The priest said----[Bos nods with a sombre expression.] Oh,
oh----[She stares helplessly, her arms hang limp.]
BOS. I have sympathy for you. I know you as a respectable woman--and
your husband too. But your children! I'm sorry to have to say it to you
now after such a blow, your children and that niece of yours have never
been any good. [Kneirtje's head sinks down.] How many years haven't
we had you around, until your son Geert threatened me with his fists,
mocked my grey hairs, and all but threw me out of your house--and your
other son----[Frightened.] Kneirtje! Kneirtje! [Rising.] Kaps! Water!
[Bathing her forehead and wrists.] I'll be damned! I'll be damned!
KAPS. Shall I call Mevrouw or your daughter?
BOS. No! Stay here! she's coming to. [Kneir. with long drawn out sobs,
sits looking before her with a dazed stare.]
KAPS. Kneir----
BOS. Keep still! Let her have her cry.
KNEIRTJE. [In an agonized voice, broken with sobs.] He didn't want
to go! He didn't want to go! And with my own hands I loosened his
fingers from the door post. [Moans softly.]
BOS. [In a muffled voice.] You have no cause to reproach yourself----
KNEIRTJE. [In the same voice as before.] Before he went I hung his
father's rings in his ears. Like--like a lamb to the slaughter----
BOS. Come----
KNEIRTJE. [Panting.] And my oldest boy that I didn't bid good
bye----"If you're too late"--these were his words--"I'll never look
at you again."--"Never look at you again!"
BOS. [Strongly moved.] Stop! in God's name, stop!----
KNEIRTJE. Twelve years ago--when the Clementine--I sat here as I am
now. [Sobs with her face between her trembling old hands.]
BOS. Come now, be strong.
[Mathilde enters.]
MATHILDE. Clemens! Ach, poor, dear Kneir, I am so sorry for you. It's
dreadful! It is frightful! Two sons!
KNEIRTJE. [Staring.] My husband and four sons----
MATHILDE. [Consoling.] But don't you worry. We have written an
appeal, the Burgomaster's wife and I, and it's going to be in all
the papers tomorrow. Here, Kaps----[Hands Kaps a sheet of paper which
he places on desk--Bos motions to her to go.] Let her wait a while,
Clemens. [Sweetly.] I have a couple of cold chops--that will brace
her up--and--and--let's make up with her. You have no objections
to her coming again to do the cleaning? We won't forget you, do you
hear? Good day, Kneir. Be brave. [Exits.]
BOS. No, we will not forget you.
KNEIRTJE. Now, my only hope is--my niece's child.
BOS. [Surprised.] A child?
KNEIRTJE. That misfortune is added. She is with child by my
son----[Softly smiling.] Misfortune? No, that isn't a misfortune
now----
BOS. And you sit and tell that? This immorality under your own
roof? Don't you know the rules of the fund, that no aid can be
extended to anyone leading an immoral life, or whose conduct does
not meet with our approval?
KNEIRTJE. [Submissive voice.] I leave it to the gentlemen
themselves--to do for me--the gentlemen----
BOS. It will be a tussle with the Committee--the committee of the
fund--your son had been in prison and sang revolutionary songs. And
your niece who----However, I will do my best. I shall recommend
you, but I can't promise anything. There are seven new families,
awaiting aid, sixteen new orphans. [Rising and closing the safe.] No,
sit awhile longer. My wife wants to give you something to take home
with you. [Exits.]
MATHILDE. [Invisible.] Kaps! Kaps! [The bookkeeper rises, disappears
for a moment, and returns with a dish and an enamelled pan.]
KAPS. [Kindly.] If you will return the dish when it's convenient,
and if you'll come again Saturday, to do the cleaning. [She stares
vacantly. He closes her nerveless hands about the dish and pan;
shuffles back to his stool. A silence. Kneirtje sits motionless,
in dazed agony; mumbles--moves her lips--rises with difficulty,
stumbles out of the office.]
KAPS. [Taking up sheet of paper from desk.] Appeal, for the
newspapers! [Smiling sardonically, he comes to the foreground; leaning
on Bos's desk, he reads.] "Benevolent Fellow Countrymen: Again we
urge upon your generosity an appeal in behalf of a number of destitute
widows and orphans. The lugger Good Hope----[As he continues reading.]
CURTAIN.