The waiter went back to his companions and sat
down amongst them, embarrassed and snubbed. But Mr. Blom left the
verandah with bitter thoughts and pushed his way through the crowd; he
fancied that he could hear a mocking: "He hasn't been able to get
dinner, after all!"
He came to a large open space. There was a puppet-show, and Jasper was
being beaten by his wife. A little further off a sailor was showing
servant girls, soldiers and apprentices their future husband or wife
in a wheel of fortune. They all had had dinner and were enjoying
themselves; for a moment he believed himself their inferior, but only
for a moment; then he remembered that they had not the vaguest idea of
how an Egyptian camp was fortified. The thought gave him back his
self-respect, and he wondered how it was possible that people could be
so degraded as to find pleasure in such childishness.
In the meantime he had lost all inclination to try the other restaurants;
he passed the Tivoli and went further into the heart of the park. Young
men and women were dancing on the grass to the strains of a violin: a
little further off a whole family was camping under an old oak; the head
of the family was kneeling down, in his shirt sleeves, with bare head, a
glass of beer in one hand, a sandwich in the other; his fat, jolly,
clean-shaven face beamed with pleasure and good-nature as he invited his
guests, who were evidently his wife, parents-in-law, brothers,
shop-assistants and servants, to eat, drink and be merry, for to-day was
Midsummer day, all day long.
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