Argosy (UK), January 1955 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ 54 F a o> * Te bd Sy BLACK MAGIC It was such a surprising, strange idea— wasn’t he making a mistake by JOHAN FABRICIUS M&® VAN HOUTEN, after working for ten years in the — Department of Finance at Batavia, still remained an out- — and-out “ pukka sahib.” He preferred roast beef and two veg. — to such a barbaric dish as the Javanese reis tafel, and was — definitely not the decadent type of European who, after enjoying his evening bath, lolled lazily back in a cane chair in the garden, — dressed in a native jacket and pyjama trousers for added comfort, — with a glass of Hollands gin and a cigar at his elbow. Bc: Mr. Van Houten even wore a jacket and waistcoat over his shantung shirt on his daily journey to the office, with a haughty _ disregard for the tropical heat. And in the evening he would go _ with his wife paying calls, or receive visitors, or sit down at his — writing-desk to look through some papers he had brought home ~ with him from his office. = For some months past he had been living by himself in his spacious house in Kebon Sirih, for Thérése had left for Holland — in the spring, taking the children to her sister in The Hague, _ where they were to go to school. ‘Tina would be twelve in — August, and Robbie was turned fourteen—it was high time they were removed from the influences to which teen-agers were — unavoidably exposed in this country where a mixture of races — lived side by side. S The decision had not been an easy one for either Mr. Vaal = Houten or his wife; but he had made up his mind and cut the Gordian knot. He had succeeded in persuading Thérése to | stay in Europe for the winter too, to recover a bit, in the healthy _ cold of Holland, from the climate of the East Indies, which she _ had never been able to stand very well. 4 The months of solitude weighed more heavily on him than he had thought they would. He had intended to take advantage of __ his wife’s absence to dispose of a lot of work he had purposely — put on one side to await this opportunity. But now he found that he often felt too restless to go and sit down at his desk again of an evening—the house was so empty and still, and every sound that broke the stillness distracted his attention. The comichooks.conl