He now opened the door of Addie's study. Since Addie and Mathilde had moved to the Hague, the room had remained the same as regards furniture, but somehow dead; only in the morning Guy usually sat working at his table by the window and Van der Welcke was sure to find him there. But he was not there; and the books and maps had obviously not been opened or looked at.
"Where can the boy be?" thought Van der Welcke. "He can't still be in bed."
The room did not look as if anyone had been there that morning. There were a couple of letters on Addie's writing-table, where the maids always left any that arrived for him at the old address, so that he might find them when he came down, once or twice a week, for the brief visit to which every one at home looked forward.
Van der Welcke moodily closed the door:
"I'd better see if he is still upstairs," he thought, going up the second flight.
Since Guy had given up his bedroom to Marietje van Saetzema, he slept in a little dressing-room. The door was open; the bed was made.
"The fellow must have gone out already," thought Van der Welcke. "It's a dirty trick not to let me know. Well, I shall go by myself: I need some air."
Angrily he went downstairs, through the hall, to the outhouse where the bicycles were kept. Guy's was not there.
"There, I said so: he's gone out and never even let me know. Oh, it's always like that: those children are always selfish. We do everything for them, when they've got no claim on us; and what sort of thanks do we receive? . . . The boy knows that I'm fond of him, that I like cycling with him when Addie's not here, but he doesn't so much as think
