ootman?" asked Anna, pretending not to know.

"I say, what next!" muttered Karel. "A footman, indeed!"

"But, Ka-rel, in that case, let us just go on to Constance."

"Oh, are you going to Mrs. van der Welcke's?"

"Yes, we must re-ally pay her a vis-it, to-day...."

"Well, come along then!" growled Karel, who was irritable without
knowing why.

And they drove to the Hotel des Indes. The porter left them in the hall
for a moment, then showed them up.

"How nice of you to come!" said Constance. She was genuinely pleased.
"And in this awful weather! But, as you see, you have to come up to my
bedroom. I have no sitting-room; and the drawing-room is such a bore.
Really, it's very nice of you to come," she repeated, "and in this rain,
too! Adriaan!"

"Yes, Mamma!"

"Here are Uncle Karel and Aunt Cateau."

She beckoned to the boy to come from his room. She was smiling with
happiness, glad to see the faces of her brother and her sister-in-law,
longing for the sympathy of family-affection, though she had not known
Cateau in the old days.

"Ah, is that your _boy_, Con-stance?... Well, he _is_ a big boy!"

"How d'ye do, Aunt? How d'ye do, Uncle?" said the lad, a little coldly
and haughtily.

"Is he like his father?" asked Karel.

"Yes," said Constance, grudgingly.

Karel and Cateau looked at Adriaan. The boy stood bolt upright before
them, a strikingly handsome lad: he certainly resembled his father; he
had Van der Welcke's regular features, his round head, his short, soft,
curly hair. At thirteen, an age when other boys are overgrown, gawky and
clumsy in their ways, he was not tall, but well-proportioned and rather
broadly built, with a pair of square shoulders in his blue serge jacket,
with something about his gestures and movements that denoted a certain
manliness and self-possession, uncommon in so young a boy. He tried to
be polite, but could not conceal a certain mistrust of this unknown
uncle and aunt. His small mouth was firmly closed; his eyes stared
fixedly, dark-blue, serious and cold.

Constance made her sister-in-law and brother sit down:

"Forgive all this muddle," she said with a laugh. "I was taking
advantage of the rainy day to arrange my trunks a bit."

Cateau gave a sharp glance round: there were dresses hanging over the
chairs and from the pegs; a couple of hats lay on a table.

"Oh, Con-stance!" said Cateau; and she felt a little impertinent at
saying, "Constance," just like that--she ha