When Mijnheer came in they were all talking at once and Denah was weeping copiously.  Julia’s part in the conversation was small; she just shot a word in here and there, but apparently never without effect, for her utterances, like drops of water on hot metal, were always followed by fresh bursts of excitement.  The good man tried in vain to make out what was the matter and what had happened.  At last, after his fifth effort elsewhere, he turned to Julia, and she told him briefly.  She told the truth, only suppressing Rawson-Clew’s name and all details concerning him, saying merely that he was a man she had met before she left England.  The two elder sisters gradually became silent to listen; Denah listened too, only sniffing occasionally.

“You pretended you did not know him the day we went the excursion,” she said vindictively; “I saw you; I knew you were not to be trusted then.  Why did you pretend, and how do you know him?  He is a man of family; he has the air of it, very distinguished, and you are nothing at all, nobody—­”

“Hush!” said Mijnheer; “that is not the point; it is of no importance who the man may be, he is a man, that is enough; and she was out with him—­alone—­a whole day and night; it is certainly very bad indeed; shocking, if it is true—­is it true?”

He looked at Julia, and she answered, “Yes.”

She was sorry, very sorry, but more on his account than her own; she could see how heinous he thought it, how she had fallen in his esteem, and she was sorry for it.  But at the same time she knew her conduct really had been no more than indiscreet; and she did not repent; she regretted nothing but being found out, and that not so much as she ought now that the joy of battle was upon her.  As for the women, they suspected far worse than Mijnheer believed; but even if they had not, if they had believed no more than the truth, that would have been enough for condemnation; her offence—­the real one—­was past forgiveness; she must go.  She received the sentence meekly; she knew she deserved no less from these kind if narrow-minded people.  Denah smiled triumphantly; Julia felt she deserved that too; moreover, Denah’s nose was so pink and her face so swelled with tears, that the smile was more amusing than exasperating.

“I am sorry,” she said; “I am sorry you should all have to think so ill of me, and that I should deserve it.  You have been very kind to me while I have been here, and made my service easy; I am ashamed to have deceived you and behaved in such a way as you must condemn.”

Unfortunately Vrouw Snieder snorted here; she did not believe in these protestations and she said so, inducing Vrouw Van Heigen to do the same.  Mijnheer looked doubtfully at Julia for a moment, then he came to the conclusion that if she was not too abandoned a person to be really repentant, it would be as well to take advantage of her professed state of mind and drive home some moral lessons.  Accordingly he and the two elder ladies drove them home, with the result that Julia’s regret dwindled to nothing.