s always pleasant and gay."

"And I remember Gerrit, ten years ago, lugubrious and melancholy."

"Oh, every one has an occasional mood! Perhaps he had an unhappy
love-affair: why not Gerrit as well as another?"

"I may be wrong, of course."

"When I see Gerrit, in his big chair, with all those children climbing
over his legs and chest, he looks to me the very personification of
happiness. Oh, Paul, and I too, I too feel happy: I can't tell you,
Paul, how happy I am to be back here in the Hague! And now, now you do
all care for me a little again: even Adolphine was very nice lately,
before she went away; and I am happy, I am so happy!"

"You have a very gentle, noble, pastoral nature, with a strong atavistic
tendency!" said Paul, teasing her. "Look, here are your husband and your
boy back with their bicycles, just like two brothers, an elder and a
younger brother. They make a good pair. Now, if you're so happy, don't
be jealous and try and remain as pastoral all the evening as you are at
this moment ... even if your husband should enter the room
presently!..."

CHAPTER XXVI

The old woman walked with slow steps along the paths of the garden,
carefully examining each separate rose with her grey eyes. Her legs
seemed to move with difficulty along the narrow gravel-paths that wound
through the front-garden; and her frame was bent, as though deformed. In
a wicker-work chair on the verandah sat the tall, old figure of the
husband, his ivory forehead bulging above the pages of the newspaper
which he held in his large, shrivelled hands....

Evening fell. A nameless grey melancholy fell from the pale summer sky
over the country-roads, along which the peaceful villas faded into the
shadows of their gardens. The old woman looked up at the sky, looked out
over the road, with her hand shading her eyes, walked on again, slowly
and painfully, carefully examining each separate rose.... Then she went
back to the house:

"It is getting cold, Hendrik; don't stay out too long."

"No."

But the old man remained sitting where he was. The old woman went in,
wandered through the sitting-room and the dining-room. She passed her
pocket-handkerchief lightly over the furniture, looking to see if there
was any dust on it; and, as the parlour-maid had cleared the table, she
pulled the cloth straight, put a chair into its proper place, smoothed
away a crease in the curtain. She went into the conservatory, looked
into the back-ga