urs, she saw nothing but the trees, heard nothing but the rustling
of the leaves, nor heard her own persistent little false note: ting!

Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling went the bell; and the wind must have rushed
through the front-door and up the stairs, for the drawing-room door blew
open as lightly as though the great door had been no more than a sheet
of note-paper; the maid came pounding up the stairs, the stairs creaked,
another door slammed; the maid, at the door, screamed out something loud
through the house, loud through the wind, loud through all the sounds
and colours; another voice sounded sharply in reply; the maid went
pounding down again, the stairs creaked and bang went the door:

"Will you please go upstairs, mevrouw?"

"Come upstairs, Cateau!"

"But am I re-ally not disturb-ing you, Adolph-ine?"

"No, come up."

"What a _wind_, eh, Phi-i-ine? Eh? How it's blow-ing!"

Ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta; ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, went Marietje's
scales, as Mamma entered with Aunt Cateau. Whew, boo! blew the wind.
C-r-rack, cr-r-rack! went the flagstaff outside the window....

"Good-morn-ing, Marie-tje. And _tell_ me, Phi-i-ine, was it a reg-ular
din-ner?"

"Yes, it was a formal dinner."

"Oh, so they _do_ see peo-ple? And I _thought_ they lived so qui-etly.
We are nev-er asked there; are _you_, Adolph-ine?"

"No, never."

"I do think she might al-so some-times show a little polite-ness to her
brothers and sis-ters. We nev-er see peo-ple, as you know, _don't_ you,
Adolph-ine? Ka-rel doesn't _care_ for it; he only cares for qui-et. _I_
should rather _like_ it. But it's Ka-rel, you see, who doesn't _care_
for it. And who were there, Adolph-ine?"

"Oh, well, they know nobody, so it looked to me rather like a failure.
Nobody except that Vreeswijck. No doubt, they'd had one or two refusals,
for they'd asked Paul to make up the party."

"Oh, _Paul_? No doubt, one or two _must_ have refused!"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, re-ally, Con-stance is ... But then _I_ don't call a din-ner like
that a _success_. Do _you_, Adolph-ine?"

"No, I thought it ridiculous. A dinner-party of four!"

"Were the men _dressed_?"

"Yes, dressed."

"And Con-stance? Low-necked?"

"No, not low-necked, but smart as paint. And champagne!"

"Re-ally! Cham-pagne as we-ell?"

"Yes, a cheap brand. And the rooms so dark: I didn't think it
respectable. Such a dim light, you know. Quite disreputable, I thought,
with those three men