be disagreeable. Eat up your cheese."

"I can't eat, when Mamma...."

"She's sorry already; she's all nerves to-day. So don't talk about it
any more."

"I? I'm not talking!"

"No, but _soeda_,[19] now, as Aunt Ruyvenaer says. Will you eat your
cheese now? Presently, we'll go for a ride."

He went away.

"Here I sit, just like a naughty child," thought Van der Welcke, "with
my little plate of cheese and biscuits. That silly boy!"

And he ate up his bit of cheese and laughed....

Downstairs, Constance had put a piece of pudding on Addie's plate. He
ate slowly. She looked at him contentedly, because he was enjoying it.

"If you hadn't fired up like that," he said, "I'd have told you
something, about Henri."

"What about him?"

"That chap's going to be ill."

"Why?"

"He's so upset at Emilie's marriage that it's made him quite unwell.
Kees Hijdrecht got angry and said, 'Are you in love with your sister?'
And then Henri almost began to cry, Leiden man though he is. No, he
wasn't in love, he said, but he had always been with Emilie, with Emilie
and Marianne; and now she was married and would be a stranger. He was so
bad that we took him home; and then he locked himself in his room and
wouldn't even see Marianne."

"But, Addie, that's morbid."

"I dare say; but it's true."

"I must go round to Aunt Bertha's. Will you take me?"

"No, let me go cycling with Papa. He's sitting upstairs, eating his
cheese for all he's worth. You'd better tell Truitje to take him up his
coffee."

"But, Addie, what will the girl think when she sees Papa finishing his
dinner upstairs?"

"She can think what she likes. It's your fault. Shall I come and fetch
you at Aunt Bertha's at a quarter to ten?"

She looked at him radiantly, delighted, surprised. And she kissed him
passionately:

"My boy, my darling!" she cried, pressing him to her heart.

[19] Quiet, that'll do.

CHAPTER XIX

In the same nervous mood in which she had been all day, Constance
hurried, after dinner, to the Bezuidenhout, taking the tram along the
Scheveningsche Weg and another to the Plein. When she rang at the Van
Naghels', she thought it strange that there was no light in the hall, as
she knew, from Addie, that they were at home that evening. The butler,
who opened the door, said that he did not know whether mevrouw could see
her, as mevrouw was not feeling well.

She waited in the drawing-room, where the butler hurriedly turned on the
l