![]() ![]() Hanneke paid off the midwife and changed the bedsheets. But she blessed the child anyway, because the blessing of a new baby is a responsibility, and Hanneke de Groot always met her responsibilities. Like all work, it would probably fall on her shoulders. It had a face like a bowl of porridge, and was pale as a painted floor. The baby was neither a boy nor was it pretty. Hanneke de Groot, the head housekeeper of the estate, was less impressed. Therefore, the midwife offered a blessing to Alma as well, although without excessive passion. Any baby who brings money is an acceptable baby. Moreover, the midwife knew that she would be paid, and paid handsomely. The bedroom had been warm, soup and beer had been freely offered, and the mother had been stalwart-just as one would expect from the Dutch. The midwife, a German-born local woman, was of the opinion that this had been a decent birth in a decent house, and thus Alma Whittaker was a decent baby. Thus concluded her blessing-or what constitutes a blessing, from so austere a woman as Beatrix Whittaker. She prayed that her daughter would grow up to be healthy and sensible and intelligent, and would never form associations with overly powdered girls, or laugh at vulgar stories, or sit at gaming tables with careless men, or read French novels, or behave in a manner suited only to a savage Indian, or in any way whatsoever become the worst sort of discredit to a good family namely, that she not grow up to be een onnozel, a simpleton. Holding her robust infant, Beatrix murmured a prayer in her native Dutch. ![]()
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