it was a little past the turn of the half-year after the wedding that the prophets of evil pricked up their ears hopefully—as there began to go humming through marken a soft buzz of talk about the carryings on of geert thysen and krelis kess. it was only vague talk, to be sure; but then when talk of that sort is vague there is the more seaway for speculation and inference. all sorts of rumours went flashing about—and carried the more weight, perhaps, because they could not be traced to a starting-point[29] and were disavowed by each person who passed them on. the sum of them became quite amazing before long!
in the end, of course, this talk worked around to marretje. bit by bit, one kind friend after another brought her variations of the same budget of news, pleading their friendship for her as the excuse for their chattering; and all of them were a good deal disconcerted by the placid way, with scarcely a word of comment, in which she suffered them to talk on. only when they took to saying harsh things about krelis did they rouse her a little. then she would stop them shortly, and with a quiet insistence that put them in an awkward corner, by asking them to remember that it was her husband whom they were talking about, and that what they were saying was not fit for his wife to hear. this line of rejoinder was disconcerting to her interlocutors. to be put in the wrong, that way, while performing for conscience' sake a very unpleasant duty, could not but arouse resentment. presently it began to be said that marretje was a poor-spirited thing upon whom friendly sympathy was thrown away.
perhaps it was because marretje was not feel[30]ing very strong just then that she took matters so quietly. certainly she had not much energy to spare, and her days went slowly and heavily. even on the sunday mornings when she had krelis at home with her—and a good many of his sundays were spent away from the island, in order, as he explained, that he might get off on the mondays earlier to his fishing—she found it hard to keep up the laughing talk and the light-hearted way with him that he seemed to think always were his due. when she flagged a little he told her not to be sulky—and that cut her sharply, for she thought that he ought to feel in his own heart how very tenderly she was loving him in those days, and how earnestly she was longing for a tender and sustaining love in return.
it is uncertain how much of all this old jaap understood, but a part of it he certainly did understand. in some matters his clouded brain seemed to work with a curious clearness, and especially had he a strange faculty for getting close to troubled hearts. many there were in marken, on whom sorrow had fallen, who had been comforted by his sympathy; and who had found it the more soothing and helpful because it was given with no more than a gentle[31] look or a few gentle words. in this same soft way, that asked for no answer and that needed none, he comforted marretje in that sad time of her loneliness. many a day, when the other fishermen kept the sea, he kept the land—letting his boat go away to the fishing without him while he made company at home for his granddaughter, and even helped her in the heavier part of her house-work with his big clumsy old hands. these awkward efforts to serve her touched marretje's heart very keenly—yet also added a pang to her sorrow because of her longing that krelis might show his love for her in the same way.
but old jaap had his work to do at sea, and marretje had to make the best of many and many a weary and lonely day. being in so poor a way she could busy herself but little with her house-work—nor was there much incentive to scour and polish since krelis had ceased to commend her housekeeping; and, indeed, was at home so little that he was indifferent as to whether she kept her house well or ill.
and so she spent much of her time as she had spent that first lonely sunday afternoon—sitting on the steps above her scouring-shelf,[32] looking out sadly and dreamily across the marsh-land and the sea. or she would walk slowly to the end of the village, where rough steps went down to a little-used canal, and there would lean against the rail while she gazed steadfastly across the marshes seaward—trying to fancy that she could see the fishing fleet, and trying to build in her breast little hope-castles in which krelis again was all her own. they comforted her, these hope-castles: even though always, when the week ended and the fleet was back again, they came crashing down. sometimes krelis's boat did not return at all. sometimes it returned without him. when he did come back in it very little of his idle sunday was passed at home. the dark months of winter dragged on wearily. grey chill clouds hung over marken, and grey chill clouds rested on this poor marretje's heart.
