Page:Later Life (1919).djvu/91

Rh "Oh, there's no spoiling my boy!" said she, lifting her head high and putting her arm round Addie's shoulder with motherly pride.

"And you don't make him vain, by saying that?"

"There's no making him vain," she continued, boasting a little, like a proud mother.

"So he can stay?" asked Brauws.

"He can stay."

"Well, in that case I shall tell you more about myself."

"Only in that case?"

"You are giving me a proof of confidence and, I might almost say, of sympathy."

Van der Welcke took his friend by the shoulders:

"My dear Max, you pretend that you don't know how to talk to 'ladies' and there you stand, like a typical courtier, paying compliments to my wife. That's all superfluous, you know: here's a cup of coffee; sit down, make yourself at home, choose your own chair; and now, Mr. Miner, tell your Mad Hans how, when you were in America, you went even madder than he."

But Brauws was obviously still seeking subterfuges, as though it were impossible for him to interpret the riddle of his former existence to these people who were entertaining him so kindly; and at last he half managed to escape their pressing curiosity by saying:

"But I can't possibly tell you all that straight