they not members of the family, for
which she had longed so? She tried to speak playfully, after her
all-too-spontaneous outpouring; but she suddenly felt that this was out
of tune too. She felt that, after all, she had not seen her brother for
twenty years, not since the day of her marriage to De Staffelaer, and
that they had become as utter strangers to each other. She felt that she
did not know Cateau at all. And so, though Karel and Cateau were her
brother and sister, they were also strangers. But that was just what she
did not want: she wanted to win them all, the whole family; to feel that
they were all warm-hearted and indulgent towards her.... And she spoke
of Mamma, of the Sunday evenings, of Mamma's mania for the family, which
she herself now felt so strongly, intensified as it had been in those
lonely, joyless Brussels years. She asked their advice about taking a
house at the Hague.

"The best thing you can do is to consult an estate-agent," said Karel.
"There's one close by; he'll know about all the houses to let."

"It will be difficult to find the right thing," said Constance. "We had
a pretty flat at Brussels; and I really prefer a flat to a house. But
there aren't any in Holland."

"Oh, Con-stance!" said Cateau, round-eyed. "Don't you find a flat ve-ry
stuff-y?"

"Not at all; and I love to have everything on one floor. I don't care
for maids running up and down the stairs."

"Yes, but the place _must_ be kept _clean_."

"Well, it was.... Only, in a flat, abroad, the bell doesn't keep ringing
as it does at one's front-door in Holland. The cook goes to market in
the morning...."

"And does she just buy ev-erything?"

"She buys enough for a couple of days: vegetables and eggs and whatever
she wants."

"Do you leave that to the _cook_?"

"Oh, yes! Imagine if I didn't!" laughed Constance. "She simply couldn't
understand it! I used only to give her a few instructions."

"Well, I _must_ say that I don't think that at _all_ a prop-er way of
house-keeping!... Do _you_, Kar-el?"

"It's the way of the country," growled Karel, under his breath. "Were
you thinking of looking for a house in one of the new districts,
Duinoord, for instance?"

"I'd rather not be so far from all of you."

"Dear Con-stance!" laughed Cateau, with her round face. "But we _all_
live more or less _far_ from one ano-ther!"

There was a knock at the door: the porter showed Adolphine in.

"Ah, Adolphine! How nice of you to