Jan Steen arranges the various actors in a small room with a window. Composition is based on a triangle, with the magnificently dressed young woman at its top point. Her clothing and seductive look identify her as a “loose-living” girl. She, however, is not the focus of the scene; that is provided by the lady of the house, who has fallen asleep at the table on the left. Her “absence” has resulted in the rest of the story: the dog is finishing the meat pie that was served on the table, one of the children is filching something from the cabinet on the wall (“opportunity makes the thief ”), the little girl’s brother is trying out a pipe, and the youngest child, sitting in his highchair, is playing carelessly with a string of pearls. His attention diverted to the side, a young man is trying to play a violin. Young people who continued to live at home were considered suspect in the popular culture of the Netherlands at the time. 