"That I had the honour to hear from Mr. Saffeler"--(Saffeler travels
for Stern)--"that the honoured head of the firm, Ludwig Stern, had
a son, Mr. Ernest Stern, who wished for employment for some time in
a Dutch house.

"That I, mindful of this"--(here I referred again to the immorality
of _employés_, and also the history of that daughter of Busselinck
and Waterman; it won't do any harm to tell it)--"that I, mindful of
this, wished, with all my heart, to offer Mr. Ernest Stern the German
correspondence of our firm."

From delicacy I avoided all allusion to honorarium or salary; yet
I said:--

"That if Mr. Ernest Stern would like to stay with us, at 37 Laurier
Canal, my wife would care for him as a mother, and have his linen
mended in the house"--(that is the very truth, for Mary sews and
knits very well),--and in conclusion I said, "that we were a religious
family."

The last sentence may do good, for the Sterns are Lutherans. I posted
that letter. You understand that old Mr. Stern could not very well give
his custom to Busselinck and Waterman, if his son were in our office.

When _Max Havelaar_ gets to Java the narrative is less satisfactory,
so tangential does it become, but there are enough passages in the
manner of that which I have quoted to keep one happy, and to show how
entertaining a satirist of his own countrymen at home "Multatuli"
(whose real name was Edward Douwes Dekker) might have been had he
been possessed by no grievance.