sessed a charm for his small male
soul.

Adolphine, however, on the day when the contract was signed, at the big
family-dinner at the Witte Brug and the subsequent evening-party for all
the friends and relations, boasted aloud in her self-complacency. She
bragged to Uncle Ruyvenaer, to Karel and Cateau, to Constance, to Gerrit
and Adeline: _those_ were fine rooms, the rooms of the Witte Brug, much
finer than the rooms in the Doelen; that was a splendid dinner, the
dinner which _she_ had given: it cost a lot of money, though, and she
told how much, but added a couple of hundred guilders to the cost; and
did they remember that impossible dinner of Bertha's, at Emilie's
wedding, and the queer dishes that had been set before them? Wasn't it a
splendid dessert, with beautiful strawberries, which _she_ had given?
And so _many_ and at this season, too: but you had to pay for them! And
how gay they had been at table, _her_ family--as though that same family
were not also Bertha's family--and _her_ friends: so very different from
that pretentious set of Bertha's! There was such a gay, spontaneous tone
in the speeches and the conversation; and did Gerrit remember that
deathly stillness at table at Emilietje's dinner? Such nice people,
Dijkerhof's parents, _her_ girl's future father- and mother-in-law....
And how well Floortje looked, didn't she? And the other girls were
prettily dressed too. She boasted so breathlessly of everything, of
every detail, that neither Uncle nor Gerrit had a single opportunity of
expressing their appreciation, of giving voice to their admiration; and
it was not until she had passed on, boasting right and left to her
acquaintances--"Well, what do you say to _my_ dinner? Well, what do you
say to _my_ party? Well, what do you think of _my dress?_"--that Uncle
Ruyvenaer said:

"Any one would think that Adolphine had built the Witte Brug herself!"

"_I_ think," whined Cateau, "Adolph-ine oughtn't to say all those things
her-self, don't _you_, Ger-rit?"

"Well," said Gerrit, "it's a delightful feeling to be so pleased with
your own self and your own children and your own dinner. But, if you
think as you do, Cateau, why didn't you compliment her yourself?"

"Be-cause I _think_," whined Cateau, whining worse than usual, "that
that dress doesn't look at _all_ smart on Adolph-ine. What do _you_
think, A-deline?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Adeline, good-naturedly.

"Con-stance, _you_ have such _very_ good