ff like a brilliant and acrid fire-work:

"Well, I don't think the family will like _that_ so very much!"

"You need only look at Van Naghel's face...."

"Or at the Van Saetzemas'."

"Why don't they keep her in the background?"

"Yes. What did she want to come back for at all?"

"I call it an impertinence."

"She was always intriguing as a young girl."

"That marriage with old De Staffelaer...."

"And what is she ferreting round for now?"

"Yes, what on earth is she ferreting round for in the Hague?"

And they ferreted round for what she was ferreting round for in the
Hague. They ferreted very deep, very far, after the brilliant
cross-fire; they dug up, among themselves, all the sand of their
suspicions and flung it about one another's ears:

"They had a very expensive establishment abroad and were unable to keep
it going any longer."

"She wants to be near her mother because she's afraid that, when the
mother dies, there will be trouble about the will."

"It was he who wanted to come back, for the sake of an old mistress of
his."

"She wants to go to Court."

"No, it's he who wants to go to Court."

"Yes, they both want to go to Court."

"She wants to go to Court...."

"She wants to go to Court...."

"She wants to go to Court...."

"But what a piece of impudence!"

"Even if she was in that set once...."

"That is no reason...."

"Why she should dream...."

"Of being presented...."

"Now...."

"Well, you'll see: this winter...."

"She wants to go to Court...."

"To Court...."

"But that's not the only reason."

"No, he too is afraid that his parents will disinherit him, as far as
they can...."

"And now he proposes...."

"To soften them, by means of the child...."

"Which isn't even his!"

"What difference does that make?"

"The old people don't know!..."

And they ferreted very industriously and dug up the sand and kept up
their cross-fire as a sport for the tea-parties and evening-parties, at
the Club and at Scheveningen.

"Look here," said others, "Van der Welcke behaved like a gentleman."

"What! To run away with another man's wife?"

"No, but to marry her afterwards."

"There aren't many who would have done it."

"She's older than he."

"Six years older."

"No, four years."

"No one else would have done it."

"No, no one."

"And he was a deucedly decent fellow."

"Always was."

"Always was."

"She was older than he, she knew the world...."

"