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364 that father and mother of your husband’s? Whatever are you doing?”

“I’m tidying up my cupboard.”

“You’d do better to go for a walk: you’re looking so pale.”

“But I’m perfectly well.”

“I’ve come to ask if you’ll come to dinner at my house the day after to-morrow. But you must make yourself smart. We shall be fourteen. My first dinner-party. It’s a summer dinner. But we know such an awful lot of people; and I always begin my dinners very early. You see, it’s quite plain, at my place, but jolly. Bertha doesn’t begin till January; but she works everything out so closely. I like doing things handsomely. So it’s settled, isn’t it: you’ll come?”

“I’m sorry, Adolphine. It’s very nice of you to ask me, but I can’t come.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know your friends. And I don’t care about going out.”

“Oh!” said Adolphine, nettled. “I suppose my friends are not smart enough for you? I can tell you, I have the Hijdrechts coming and the Erkenbouts and the. . .”

“I’m not saying anything about your friends, but I don’t care for dinner-parties.”

“And you give them yourself!”

“I?”

“Yes, as I saw for myself not so long ago.”