t seen her since she
married De Staffelaer! Lord, what a sweet child she was! What a sweet,
pretty child! Twenty years ago: why, it's an age! She must have grown
old! Yes, of course she must: she _must_ have grown old! How old is she?
It's easy to reckon: she must be forty-two, eh? And Van der Welcke is a
nice fellow, what? Very decent of him, I'm bound to say, very
decent...."

Mamma van Lowe turned very white; Dorine gave an angry look; Toetie
Ruyvenaer pulled Papa's sleeve:

"_Allah_,[4] that Papa!" she whispered, good-naturedly, to her sister
Dotje. "No tact...."

"Ye-es," Aunt Ruyvenaer began in a fat, slow voice, "was it so long ago?
_Kassian_!"[5] she added, sympathetically. "Poor Constance! I'm so glad
I'm going to see her!"

"Papa!" said Poppie Ruyvenaer, the youngest.

"What is it?"

"How can you?"

"What?"

"You're upsetting Aunt Marie: don't you see?"

"But, good Lord...!"

"Oh, do stop about Constance."

"What have I said?..."

"If you don't stop, you'll make Aunt Marie cry. Don't you
understand?..."

"Oh, mustn't I talk about Constance? There's always something in our
family one mustn't talk about.... It's beyond me!"

And Uncle began to stride up and down the rooms again, rubbing his
hands, which were still cold.

Two very old aunts entered. They were the Miss Ruyvenaers, very old
ladies, turned eighty and looking more than that, unmarried sisters of
Uncle and of Mrs. van Lowe. Their names were Dorine and Christine; but
the younger generations called them Auntie Rine and Auntie Tine:

"So nice of you," said Mrs. van Lowe. "So nice...."

"What?" asked Auntie Rine.

"So nice of you, Dorine!" screamed Mrs. van Lowe in her ear.

"Marie says," screamed Auntie Tine, "it's so nice of you ... to come
to-night.... Dorine is so deaf, Marie.... Really, she's getting
unbearable...."

Auntie Tine was the young one, the tetchy one, the bitter one; Auntie
Rine was the older one, the good-natured, deaf one. Outwardly, the two
old ladies resembled each other and looked like old prints in their
antiquated dresses; they wore black lace caps on the grey hair that
framed their faces, which were wrinkled like a walnut.

The old ladies went and sat far apart; and it was strange to see them
sitting at either end of the drawing-room, quietly, watching
attentively, not saying much....

Now the others came, gradually. The first to arrive were the Van
Saetzemas: Adolphine, her husband, Floortje, Carol