but
of course a thing quite by itself."

"Yes," reflected Constance. "A big family like ours necessarily has all
sorts of sections...."

"And that is why Mamma is so devoted to her 'family-group,' in which all
the different elements meet."

"Sometimes we don't see one another for weeks and months at a time,
except on those Sunday evenings...."

"And tell me: Karel and Cateau...."

"Ka-rel and Ca-teau," said Gerrit, mimicking Cateau, "live ve-ry
com-fortably and have ve-ry nice little din-ners all by their lit-tle
selves, _don't_ they, Adel-ine?"

They laughed.

"I was always fond of Karel," said Constance. "Of Karel and you,
Gerrit.... Do you remember, in the river, behind the Palace at
Buitenzorg...."

He looked at her long, seeking their childish past in her eyes:

"Yes, you were a pretty child then. You used to act all sorts of
fairy-tales with us, among those great, spreading leaves: stories of a
princess and fairies and knights and I don't know what. You were a
darling of a child: such a dainty, pale little elf, in your white cotton
_baadjet_[9]; and your brothers were in love with you.... But two years
later, when I was a boy of sixteen and you fifteen, you suddenly became
a stuck-up girl, in a long ball-dress, and you refused to dance with any
one except old staff-officers and the secretary-general...."

"And what am I now?" she asked, smiling, with her soul full of sadness.

"The lost sister ... found again."

"Yes, the lost sister, indeed!"

"Come, Sissy, not so gloomy!"

"My life has been hard to bear."

"But you have your boy, your child. Children are everything."

"My life has been nothing but mistake upon mistake. And I am so afraid
that I shan't bring up my boy properly."

"Then leave that to your husband!" said Gerrit, man-like.

"Oh, really?" said Adeline. "Is she to leave that to her husband?"

"Yes, Adeline. Just as we do. I the boys, you the girls."

"Oh, really?"

"But, Gerrit, if I leave Addie to Van der Welcke, I shall have nothing
left, nothing."

"Then be bolder and have no fear."

"Oh, life is sometimes so difficult!... So, Adeline, Gerrit, you will
care a little for your lost sister who has been found again?"

Adeline kissed Constance.

Mamma van Lowe approached, radiant, as always, at the "family-group"
which she had brought together.

"Mamma, I am so glad, so happy, to be among you all!" murmured
Constance.

The maids entered with the coats and wraps.