clothes and the old ways and the fine weather and the fruit-crop. Mother
did nothing but cut fresh slices of bread-and-butter, which were snatched
away and gobbled up on every side.

"Eat away!" said father.

The hostess of "The Four Winds" had been unable to take her eyes off
Horieneke all through mass.

"Damned pretty, like a little angel!" said Stiene Sagaer.

"And a curly head of hair like a ball of gold! It made one's mouth water!
And that wreath!" squealed the farmer's wife from the Rent Farm.

"Mam'selle Julie had a hand in it."

"And such pretty manners! Well, dear, Our Lord will be mighty pleased
with you."

"And how nicely she read that piece!" said Stiene. "My blood crept when I
heard it. Look here, Wanne Vandoorn was sitting beside me; and, you can
take my word, the good soul couldn't control herself and we both cried
till we sobbed."

"I felt it too," said mother. "Such things are cruel hearing. And the
priest...."

"Ah, he knows how to talk, that holy man! He's a pure soul."

"You'll regret it all your days, Ivo, that you weren't there to see it."