“No, no!” interrupted Verbrugge, “that is not what I said, for I have never seen him. He served in Sumatra some years before me. I only told you that I heard a good deal about him there, nothing more!”
“Well, that comes to the same thing. One need not exactly see a man to know him. What do you think about it, Adhipatti?”
The Adhipatti just wanted to call a servant. A moment passed, therefore, before he could say: “I agree with you, Commandant, but still in many cases it is necessary to see a person before you can form an opinion about him.”
“This may be true in general,” Duclari now went on in Dutch—either because he was more familiar with that language, and considered that he had done enough to satisfy the requirements of courtesy, or because he wished to be understood by Verbrugge alone—“this may be true in general, but with regard to Havelaar one certainly doesn’t require a personal acquaintance . . . he is a fool!”
“I never said that, Duclari!”
“No, you did not say it, but I do, after all you have told me about him. I call a man who jumps into the water to save a dog from sharks, a fool.”
“Well, of course, it was not sensible. But . . .”
“And just look here, that bit of poetry against General Vandamme . . . that wasn’t right!”
“It was witty . . .”
“Admitted! But a young man has no business to be witty at the expense of a general.”
“Don’t forget that he was still very young . . . it is fourteen years ago. He was only twenty-two then.”
“And then the turkey he stole!”
“That was to annoy the general.”
“Exactly! A young man has no business to annoy a general, who, in addition, was in this case, as civil governor, his chief. The other bit of verse I thought amusing, but . . . those everlasting duels!”
