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42 "And how are you, Mamma?" asked Karel, as though there were nothing the matter. "I hope you're not suffering from the heat."

The old woman nodded dully, pressed his hand.

"All that I ask," said Adolphine, addressing her husband, Paul, Dorine and Adeline, "is that you will not talk about it. Don't talk about it to outsiders. The less it's talked about, the better pleased I shall be. . . . We have that Indian lack of reserve in our family, that habit of at once going and telling everybody everything. . . . If people ask, we can say that Ernst has had a nervous breakdown; yes, that's it: let's arrange to say that Ernst has had a nervous break-down. . . ."

She asked them to give her their word; and they promised, in order to keep her quiet.

"You'll see," she said, " this business with Ernst will mean that Van Saetzema will once more fail to get elected to the town council."

Paul looked at her in stupefaction, failing to grasp the logic of her remark. Then he said, calmly:

"Yes, you see funny things happen sometimes."

"Yes," said Adolphine, nodding her head to show how much she appreciated the fact that Paul understood her. "It's horrid for me: you'll see, Van Saetzema won't get in. . . ."

"I believe that Ernst . . . is the sanest of the lot of us!" thought Paul.

And, as he moved to a seat, he first looked to