Max Havelaar
137
boy. Do believe a man who surely knows what goes on in the world! I have served your father from before his birth—I mean his firm, no . . . our firm, I mean: Last & Co.—formerly it was Last & Meyer, but the Meyers have been out of it a long time—so you will understand that I have the best intentions towards you. And do urge Frits to behave better, and don’t teach him to write verses, and pretend not to see it when he makes faces at the bookkeeper, and all that sort of thing. Set him a good example, as you are so much older, and try to inculcate composure and the stately manner of a fine gentleman in him, for he must become a broker.
I am your paternal friend,
Batavus Drystubble,
(Firm, Last & Co., coffee-brokers.)
Laurier Canal, No. 37.
