The cousin was better that evening; she even expressed hopes of living through the summer, a thing she had not done for more than three days.  Julia cheered and encouraged her in this belief (which, indeed, there was every reason to think well founded) and gave her the messages and dainties she had brought.  After that they talked of the weather, which was bad; and the neighbours, who, on the whole, were good.  Julia knew most of them by name by this time—­the kind old Padre and his wife; the captain of the little cargo-boat, who drank a little, and his generous wife, who talked a great deal; the fat woman who kept fowls, and the thin one who sometimes stole the eggs.  Julia had heard all about them before, but she heard over again, and a little about the great chemist, Herr Van de Greutz, too.

This great man was naturally only a name to the invalid and her friends, but they had always plenty to say about him.  He was so distinguished that all the village felt proud to have him live on their borders, and so disagreeable that they were decidedly in awe of him.  Of his domestic arrangements there was always talk; he lived in his great gloomy house with an old housekeeper, whom Julia knew by sight, and a young cook, whom she did not; the former was a permanency, the latter very much the reverse, it being difficult to find a cook equal to his demands who would for any length of time endure the shortness of the housekeeper’s temper, and the worse one of her master.  The domestic affairs of the chemist were a favourite subject of gossip, but sometimes his attainments came in for mention too; they did to-night, the cousin being in a garrulous mood.  According to her, the great man had done everything in science worth mentioning, and was not only the first chemist in Holland, but in all the world; he looked down on all others, she said, regarding two Germans only as anything approaching his peers, all the English and French being nothing to him.  He had discovered a great many things, dyes, poisons, and explosives; of the last he had recently perfected one which was twenty-two times stronger than anything before known.  Its nature was, of course, a secret, but it would eventually raise the little army of Holland far above those of all other nations.

Julia listened, but especially to the last piece of information, which struck her as being the one most likely to prove interesting.  Soon after hearing it, however, she was obliged to go.  She made her farewells, and received messages of affection for Mevrouw, condolence for Mijnheer—­who had a cold—­and good wishes for Joost’s journey.  Then she started homewards, with a light basket and a busy mind.