Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/194

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Max Havelaar
175

approves of my speaking thus in a straightforward way, and that he likes to do business with a person who defends virtue and religion. Yes, principles are sacred to me,and I do not scruple to say plainly what I mean: therefore, make no secret of what I say; you may write to your father that you are here in a respectable family, that shows you the right path, and ask yourself what would have become of you if you had gone-to Busselinck and Waterman? There you would likewise have recited such verses, and nobody would have told you the folly of it, because they are bunglers, You may write this to your father, for when principles are concerned I fear nobody. There the girls would perhaps have gone with you to the Ganges, and then you would perhaps by this time be lying under that tree on the grass; whereas, because I warned you, you remain with us in a respectable house. You may write all this to your father, and tell him that you are so grateful, that you came with us, and that I take such good care of you, and that the daughter of Busselinck and Waterman ran away; make him my compliments, and say that I intend to drop 1/16 per cent. of the brokerage, because I cannot suffer those low fellows, who steal the bread out of the mouth of a rival in trade by more favourable conditions.

“And be so kind as to give us something more substantial in your readings at the Rosemeyers’. I have seen in Shawlman’s parcel statements of the coffee-