IV
THE CANTATA
While strolling about the quays Door Bergmans saw a fellow whose expression attracted him. He started with astonishment. "I must be mistaken," he thought, as he continued on his way. But, having gone a few steps, he turned back, and, making sure that it really was Laurent Paridael, walked toward him with his hand outstretched.
Laurent, who was busy superintending the loading of a cargo of bales of rice contracted for by the America, was a little disconcerted, and even tried to shun him, but, reassured by the simple and kindly greeting, left his post for the moment and let himself be drawn a few feet away. When he heard the news, Bergmans teased him gently about the whim that had made him enter the service of a Nation as tally keeper, and assist the stevedores. Why had he not come to him? Bergmans offered him on the spot a place more worthy of his talents and more compatible with his education. But, to his great surprise, Laurent refused to abandon his new position. He described his new surroundings and his new friends with such lyricism and in such enthusiastic terms that he almost justified his strange vocation, and Bergmans thought better of insisting any further. He abstained from speaking of Gina.
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