Read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet: A Novel for Free Online Page B

for all eternity.
    '. . . who has not abused his advantage over Anna's affections.
    It was a posting to Halmahera from which Vorstenbosch rescued Jacob.
    'In the debit column, you are a clerk: not a merchant, not a shipper . . .
    A tortoise from the Island of Diego Garcia appears to be weeping,
    '. . . or even a warehouse-master, but a clerk. I don't doubt your affection.
    Jacob touches the jar of a Barbados lamprey with his broken nose.
    'But affection is merely the plum in the pudding: the pudding itself is wealth .
    The lamprey's O-shaped mouth is a grinding mill of razor-sharp Vs and Ws.
    'I am, however, willing to give you a chance to earn your pudding, de Zoet - out of respect for Anna's judge of character. A director at East India House comes to my club. If you wish to become my son-in-law as strongly as you say, he can arrange a five-year clerical post for you in Java. The official salary is meagre but a young man of enterprise may make something of himself. You must give your answer today, however: the Fadrelandet is sailing from Copenhagen in a fortnight . . .'
    'New friends?' Deputy van Cleef watches him from the State Room door.
    Jacob pulls his gaze from the lamprey's. 'I don't have the luxury to pick and choose, Deputy.'
    Van Cleef hums at his candour. 'Mr Vorstenbosch shall see you now.'
    'Won't you be joining our meeting, sir?'
    'Pig-iron won't carry and weigh itself, de Zoet, more's the pity.'

    Unico Vorstenbosch squints at the thermometer hung by the painting of William the Silent. He is pink with heat and shiny with sweat. 'I shall have Twomey fashion me one of those ingenious cloth fans the English brought from India . . . oh, the word evades me . . .'
    'Might you be thinking of a punkah, sir?'
    'Just so. A punkah, with a punkah-wallah to tug its cord . . .'
    Cupido enters, carrying a familiar jade-and-silver teapot on a tray.
    'Interpreter Kobayashi is due at ten,' says Vorstenbosch, 'with a gaggle of officials to brief me on court etiquette during our long-delayed audience with the Magistrate. Antique China-ware shall signal that this chief resident is a man of refinement: the Orient is all about signals, de Zoet. Remind me what blue-blood the tea-service was crafted for, according to that Jew in Macao?'
    'He claimed it was from the trousseau of the last Ming Emperor's wife, sir.'
    'The last Ming Emperor: just so. Oh, and I am desirous that you join us later.'
    'For the meeting with Interpreter Kobayashi and the officials, sir?'
    'For our interview with the Magistrate Shirai . . . Shilo . . . Aid me.'
    'Magistrate Shiroyama, sir - sir, I am to visit Nagasaki?'
    'Unless you'd prefer to stay here and record catties of pig-iron?'
    'To set foot on Japan proper would . . .' cause Peter Fischer , thinks Jacob, to expire with envy '. . . would be a great adventure. Thank you.'
    'A chief needs a private secretary. Now, let us continue the morning's business in the privacy of my bureau . . .'

    Sunlight falls across the escritoire in the small adjacent room. 'So,' Vorstenbosch settles himself, 'after three days ashore, how are you finding life on the Company's furthest-flung outpost?'
    'More salubrious' - Jacob's chair creaks - 'than a posting on Halmahera, sir.'
    'Damnation by dim praise indeed! What irks you most of all: the spies, confinement, lack of liberties . . . or the ignorance of our countrymen?'
    Jacob considers telling Vorstenbosch about the scene at breakfast, but sees nothing to be gained. Respect , he thinks, cannot be commanded from on high .
    'The hands view me with some . . . suspicion, sir.'
    'Naturally. To decree, "Private Trade is Henceforth Banned" would merely make their schemes more ingenious; a deliberate vagueness is, for the time being, the best prophylactic. The hands resent this, of course, but daren't vent their anger on me. You bear the brunt.'
    'I'd not wish to appear ungrateful for your patronage, sir.'
    'There's no gainsaying that Dejima is a dull posting. The days when a man