anyhow."

And then, when she went that way, she muttered to herself:

"At it again! Of course, there's only Dorine to inquire about Floortje's
pillow-cases! Why can't the girl go herself? Or why don't they send the
maid?"

Paul was the one whom Constance saw most often of all the brothers and
sisters. He had begun by finding in her a fairly sympathetic listener
for his endless unbosomings and philosophizings; then Van der Welcke
liked him best and they sometimes had a cigarette together in the
smoking-room; he was the most of a brother to them of the four: just an
ordinary brother. He would arrive in the morning and run straight up to
Constance' room, while she was still dressing, and declare that of
course he could come in, though she was in her petticoat. When not too
long-winded, he had an interesting way of talking which Van der Welcke
appreciated. He always looked at Addie with the eye of a philosopher;
and Addie liked him, found him great fun, with his exquisite trousers
and wonderful neckties. Constance was fond of him; and it was in Paul
that she had really for the first time met a brother again: in Paul, who
had come least within her ken in the old days, when she was a girl of
twenty and he a child of thirteen.

[20] Tropical flowers.

[21] The great house, _i.e._, the Viceregal Palace at Buitenzorg.

CHAPTER XXI

"So you're thinking of being presented at Court next winter?" said Van
Vreeswijck, who had been a chum of Henri's at Leiden and who was now a
chamberlain-extraordinary to the Queen Regent, as he and Van der Welcke
were leaving the Plaats together.

Van der Welcke looked up:

"I wasn't thinking of it for a second."

"Really? I heard that you meant to, or rather that it was your wife's
intention."

"I haven't exchanged a single word on the subject with my wife."

Van Vreeswijck took Van der Welcke's arm: "Really? Well, to tell you the
truth, I could not quite understand it."

"Why not?" asked Van der Welcke, promptly taking offence.

"Look here, old fellow: I can speak to you frankly, can't I, as an old
friend? But, if you're touchy ... then we'll avoid intimate matters."

"Not at all: what were you going to say?"

"Nothing that you won't see for yourself, if you think for a moment.
But, if the whole question of getting presented at Court doesn't exist
with you and your wife, then don't let me bring it up at all."

"No, no!" said Van der Welcke, becoming interested. "Don'