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Rh am full of sympathy for you: you are my sister and I am fond of you; but that doesn’t alter the fact that you were wrong, that you ought not to have come on my day. Why did you do it? I am so glad to see you at any other time. But just on an at-home day, when you risked meeting, well, just the people whom you did meet: Mrs. van Eilenburgh, the Van den Heuvel Steyns! Why did you do it? What made you do it?”

“So I am not fit to appear at my sister’s at-home day?”

“Please, Constance, don’t take it like that. I am not unsympathetic. We even had a talk once. . .”

Constance laughed aloud:

“Once!” she said. “Once!”

“Life is very busy, Constance. But I am always glad to see you. Only, only. . .”

“Only not on your days.”

“It’s not my fault.”

“No, it’s mine.”

“Mrs. van Eilenburgh is a niece of. . .”

“De Staffelaer.”

It was the first time that his name had been mentioned between them.

“The Van den Heuvel Steyns are. . .”

“His friends.”

“So, Constance, you understand for yourself. . .”

“I told you on Tuesday, Bertha, I am going to make my fifteen years count.”

“Constance, don’t attempt impossibilities.”