attling his sword, clinking
his spurs; fair-haired and heavy and strong in his tight uniform and
varnished riding-boots, while two small girls and two small boys, all
fair-haired, flaxen-haired, with soft, pink cheeks, climbed over him
where he sprawled in his big easy-chair: Gerdy and Adeletje and Alex and
little Guy; while the eldest, Marietje, eight years old, lifted the
little baby heavily in her arms, and a bigger baby crawled among the
legs of the table and chairs in search of a broken doll. In the midst of
this fair-haired medley--all the children delicately built like dolls,
with their flaxen curls and their soft, pink blushes--Gerrit was like a
giant, looked still taller and stronger; his uniform filled the room as
he moved; romping with his children, he seemed able, with one movement,
to send them all--Guy and Alex and Adeletje and Gerdy, who hung on to
his arms and hands--tumbling over the floor, to the terror of
Grandmamma, who thought him too rough; but Adeline was always very calm,
herself also fair, softly-smiling, she too, with her delicate little
fair face, her figure already assuming the rather matronly proportions
of a little wife who has many children and who, although young, has lost
all coquetry in regard to slenderness. She was simple and gentle, just a
small, fair little woman, for ever bearing children to her great, heavy
husband, as a duty of which she did not think much, because Gerrit
wished it: a nature of smiling resignation, always pleasant and calm,
never excited or upset because of her turbulent little brood and always
calmly performing her motherly little duties. She was expecting her
eighth in November; and there seemed to be always room in the small
house for more and more turbulent, fair-haired children. Then Mamma van
Lowe, who had come with Constance after lunch, would ask:

"Well, who's coming for a drive with Granny?..."

And usually it was so arranged that, besides Adeline herself, some four
fair-haired little ones were taken into the landau: three of the
children were crowded inside and Alex went on the box, entrusted to the
special care of the coachman. Then Mamma van Lowe's face beamed with
joy, while a long drive was taken through Voorburg, Wassenaar or
Voorschoten, and the children were regaled on milk, if the opportunity
offered. Or else they merely drove to Scheveningen; and Mrs. van Lowe
made quite a stir at Berenbak's, every one staring at the carriage out
of which, be