stly, as between brother and sister, I
should say to you, candidly, Constance, don't insist on coming to our
official dinners: they're no amusement; they're an awful bore,
sometimes: boring, aren't they, Bertha? Very tedious, very tedious,
sometimes. And the receptions, at which you are always likely to meet
people you wouldn't care for: well, if you take my advice...."

"Is that all, Van Naghel, that you have to say, when I lay bare my soul
to you, here, between brothers and sisters, and, without any diplomatic
varnish, ask you, as far as you can, to rehabilitate me in your house?"

"But, Constance, what a word! What a word to use!..."

"It's the right word, Van Naghel; there is no other word: I want my
rehabilitation."

"Constance, really, I am prepared to help you in all you ask: and
whatever is in my power...."

But Van der Welcke flared up:

"Van Naghel, please keep those non-committal expressions for the
Chamber. My wife asked you and I now ask you: will you receive us this
winter in a way that will make your set, which was once ours, take us
up, even though we rub shoulders with De Staffelaer's nephews and nieces
and even though people talk about what happened fifteen years ago?"

"Van der Welcke," said Van Naghel, nettled, "the expressions I choose to
employ in the Chamber are my own affair."

"Answer my question!"

"Henri!" Constance implored.

"Answer my question!" insisted Van der Welcke, full of suppressed rage,
feeling ready to smash everything to pieces.

"Well then, no!" said Van Naghel, haughtily.

"No?..."

"It's impossible! I have too many attacks to endure as it is, in the
Chamber, in the press, everywhere; and I can't do what you ask. You have
made yourself impossible, to our Hague society, you and your wife, the
wife of your former chief; and it's simply impossible that I should
receive you in my house on the same footing as my friends, acquaintances
and colleagues. That is no reason why we should not continue to be
brothers and sisters."

"And do you think I would wish for or accept your brotherliness on those
terms?"

"Then refuse it!" cried Van Naghel, himself losing his temper and
forgetting to pick his words. "Refuse it; and all the better for me! I
shall be only too glad to have nothing more to do with you. Your wife
compromised me the other day by coming to Bertha's reception, as if it
were a matter of course...."

Van der Welcke clenched his fists:

"My wife," he echoe