Page:Later Life (1919).djvu/49

Rh "The Figaro? No . . ."

He hunted for his paper and then sat down.

"Uncle," said Marianne, "I've just been telling Auntie, I'm so glad, I'm so glad that everything's settled."

"So am I, Marianne."

Outside, the rain came pelting down, lashed by the howling wind. Inside, all was cosiness, with Constance pouring out the tea and telling them about Nice, while Marianne talked about Emilie and Van Raven and how they were not getting on very well together and how Otto and Frances were also beginning to squabble and how Mamma took it all to heart and allowed it to depress her:

"I sha'n't get married," she said. "I see nothing but unhappy marriages around me. I sha'n't get married."

Then she started. She had a knack of behaving awkwardly and tactlessly, of saying things which she ought not to say. Van der Welcke looked at her, smiling. To make up for her indiscretion, she was more demonstrative than ever, profuse in exclamations of delight:

"Oh, Auntie, how glad I am to be with you once more! . . . I must be off presently in the rain . . . I wish I could stay . . ."

"But stay and dine," said Van der Welcke.

Constance hesitated: she saw that Marianne would like to stop on and she did not know what to