ases."

"Only, Dorine, Duinoord is so far from Mamma."

"Yes; but, Connie," said Mamma, "you can't get anything in this
neighbourhood for eight hundred guilders."

"What's the use of living at the Hague," said Constance, impatiently,
"and being an hour away from you? I want to live near you."

"Well, we shall see," Van der Welcke ventured to put in.

"See, see, see!" said Constance, angrily. "I want to have my own house
quickly. The hotel is expensive; and I dislike it. By the time the
furniture has come from Brussels, by the time we are settled...."

"Oh, well, Mummy," said Addie, decisively, "Rome wasn't built in a day,
you know."

She smiled at once. Every word spoken by her child was a balm, an
anodyne. The old grandmother smiled. Dorine smiled.

"Addie," said Mamma van Lowe, "you must do your best to help Papa and
Mamma with the house."

"Yes, Granny. It won't be plain sailing...."

The child was more at his ease than on the Sunday evening. Granny was
very kind; so was Aunt Dorine, to trot about like that, after those
houses.

"Aunt Dorine, do you always run errands?"

Everybody laughed: it was a mania of Dorine's to traverse the Hague
daily from end to end; she was a very willing creature and she was
particularly busy just now for Bertha and Adolphine, because of the two
weddings.

Ernst and Paul entered.

"We heard that Van der Welcke was at Mamma's," said Paul, "and we've
come to be introduced."

"These at least are not visits _in optima forma_," thought Constance to
herself.

Ernst resembled Bertha and blinked his eyes; but, in addition, he was
odd, shy, always timid, even in the family-circle. There was something
bashful about him, as though he wanted to run away as soon as he could.
But he made an effort and suddenly asked Constance:

"Are you fond of china?"

"Delft, do you mean?"

"Yes. Are you fond of vases? I love vases. I have all sorts of vases.
Have you ever thought of a vase: the shape, the symbol of a vase? No,
you don't know what I mean. Will you come and see me one day, in my
rooms? Will you come and lunch: you and your husband? Then I'll show you
my vases."

Constance smiled:

"I should love to, Ernst. Have you so many rare vases?"

"Yes," he said in a proud whisper. "I have some very rare ones. I am
always afraid they will be stolen. They are my children."

And he laughed; and she laughed too, while shrinking a little from him
and from coming to those rooms filled