Page:Later Life (1919).djvu/30

22 "I'll go and wash my hands and I'll be down immediately."

"Mamma never thought for a moment . . . that there was no money left," said Addie.

"Nonsense!" said Van der Welcke.

But he seemed to consider it quite natural; and, when Constance came downstairs, he said, laughing:

"Didn't you think that there was no money left?"

Constance glanced up, imagining that he meant to make a scene. But he was smiling; and his question sounded good- humoured.

"No!" she said, as if it was only natural.

And now they all went into fits of laughter, Addie with his silent convulsions, which made him shake up and down painfully.

"Do laugh right out, boy!" said Van der Welcke, teasing him. "Do laugh right out, if you can."

They were very gay as they sat down to dinner.

"And just guess," said Constance, "whom I met in the hotel at Nice, whom I sat next to at the table d'hôte: the d'Azignys, from Rome . . . The first people I met, the d'Azignys. It's incredible how small the world is, how small, how small!"

He also remembered the d'Azignys: the French ambassador at Rome and his wife. . . fifteen years ago now. ..