taste: do tell me, do _you_
think that dress looks _smart_?"

"I think Adolphine looks exceedingly well to-night," said Constance,
irritably.

"I say, Sissy, you can't mean that!" said Gerrit.

"And, even if you don't think so, Gerrit, it's not nice of you to speak
like that of your sister!"

"Oh, well, a little criticism!..."

"Yes, but to be always criticizing one another is horrid, I think," said
Constance, angrily.

"I'm bound to say, though, that I think it a ramshackle party," said
Uncle Ruyvenaer. "Who on earth are all these people?" he continued,
putting on dignity, disdainfully. "I say, Toetie, are you enjoying
yourself?"

"Yes, Papa, awfully!" said Toetie, as she passed on her partner's arm.

The Ruyvenaer girls, though no longer young, always enjoyed themselves
"awfully," not caring whether it was at Bertha's or Adolphine's.
Good-natured, kindly, simply and pleasantly Indian in their ways, they
loved dancing, they always enjoyed themselves "awfully."

"And, Dotje, what do you think of _my_ party?"

"Oh, Adolphine, so jolly your party: I'm enjoying it awfully."

And Dot also shone with gratitude and perspiration after dancing.

"Are those the Dijkerhofs' friends?" asked Mamma van Lowe, in a whisper,
of Bertha, glancing towards a gentleman and a lady who had been
introduced to her, but whose name she had not caught. "What strange
friends those Dijkerhofs have! Such obscure people: one never knows who
they are or what they are! Very vulgar people, I think. It's such a
pity, Bertha, isn't it? Dijkerhof himself is not bad; and, if Floortje
is fond of him, well, I suppose it will be all right; but I must admit I
am sorry that Adolphine is mixed up with this lot.... And those people
over there, Bertha, the stout man and the tall woman with whom Adeline
is talking so familiarly: are those intimate friends? What curious
friends she has!... It must strike Constance too, now that she's come
back to it all. At our house there was a certain harmony, a set, as
there is in your house now, Bertha. But, at Adolphine's, it's always
such a queer lot, such a queer lot! I can't call it anything else.
Goodness gracious, what a number of curious people!"

"Mamma," said Paul, "what do you think of this menagerie of
Adolphine's?"

"Oh, Paul," sighed the old lady, a little nervously, "I was just saying
to Bertha ... But we mustn't let any one else notice what we think...."

"I say, Mamma," asked Gerrit, "do you know