already quite a distance nearer the mudhole that was to come next, before the Resident was able to conclude his sentence by adding:
. . . “A. Native. Woman.”
“Oh, that’s all the same,” Mrs. Havelaar tried to make him understand. The Resident nodded, as if intending to say that he was glad the matter was thus settled, and as the conversation presented such difficulties, they dropped it.
The Mrs. Slotering referred to was the widow of Havelaar’s predecessor, who had died two months before. Verbrugge, who thereupon had been provisionally charged with the function of Assistant-Resident, would have been entitled to occupy during that time the spacious residence which at Rangkas-Betoong, as in every division, had been erected by the Government for the person there in authority. He had, however, not done so, partly perhaps from fear that he would have to move again too soon, and partly to leave the use of it to the lady and her children. All the same, there would have been room enough, for in addition to the fairly large Assistant-Residency there was next to it, in the same grounds, another house, which had formerly served the same purpose, and which, though somewhat in disrepair, was still perfectly fit to live in.
Mrs. Slotering had asked the Resident to speak for her to the successor of her husband, to obtain his permission for her to live in the old house until after her confinement, which she expected in a few months. It was this request which Havelaar and his wife had so readily conceded, as entirely in accordance with their natural disposition to the most liberal hospitality and eagerness to help.
We have heard the Resident say that Mrs. Slotering was a “native woman.” This remark requires some elucidation for the non-Indian reader, who might readily and wrongly conclude that the allusion was to a full-blooded Javanese.
European Society in Netherlands India is rather sharply divided into two sections: the true Europeans, and those who—although legally living in the enjoyment of absolutely the same full rights—
