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84 to dance with any one except old staff-officers and the secretary-general. . . .”

“And what am I now?” she asked, smiling, with her soul full of sadness.

“The lost sister. . . found again.”

“Yes, the lost sister, indeed!”

“Come, Sissy, not so gloomy!”

“My life has been hard to bear.”

“But you have your boy, your child. Children are everything.”

“My life has been nothing but mistake upon mistake. And I am so afraid that I sha’n’t bring up my boy properly.”

“Then leave that to your husband!” said Gerrit, man-like.

“Oh, really?” said Adeline. “Is she to leave that to her husband?”

“Yes, Adeline. Just as we do. I the boys, you the girls.”

“Oh, really?”

“But, Gerrit, if I leave Addie to Van der Welcke, I shall have nothing left, nothing.”

“Then be bolder and have no fear.”

“Oh, life is sometimes so difficult! . . . So, Adeline, Gerrit, you will care a little for your lost sister who has been found again?”

Adeline kissed Constance.

Mamma van Lowe approached, radiant, as always, at the “family-group” which she had brought together.