Page:Small Souls (1919).djvu/167

Rh “Yes, really! . . .”

“He’s a low fellow, too.”

“Yes, there’s a woman in Brussels.”

“If they had only stayed there!”

“How very select Aunt Constance is to-night,” said Floortje to Dijkerhof.

“She’s been sitting with Paul the whole evening,” he answered.

“Of course, no one is good enough for her!”

“No. When you’ve been the wife of a diplomatist. . .”

“And afterwards Baroness van der Welcke. . . .”

“What did they come to the Hague for, exactly?”

“Mamma thinks, because she is afraid that, when Grandmamma, who doesn’t look far ahead, dies. . .”

“Well, what then?”

“Well, that she won’t get her full rights.”

“Oh, nonsense!”

“I tell you, she doesn’t trust us.”

“But, surely there’s a will; and, in any case, the law. . .”

“Yes, but she doesn’t know that, by Dutch law, all the children share and share alike. And, to make sure of what she’s to get, she wants to be on the spot when Grandmamma dies. They owe a heap of money.”

“And does he do nothing for a living?”

“No. He used to sell wine at Brussels.”