"Give me your attention, Johannes, and I will tell you who all those beings are that you have encountered. I will also solve the riddle of their power, and tell you what there remains for us to do."
At that moment the door opened, and Countess Dolores came in with the children. She was dazzling, with magnificent jewels sparkling on her bare neck and arms. The children were in white. The grand table-d'hôte was over, and the countess had now come to drink her Arabic coffee with Van Lieverlee.
"Ah!" said she, looking at him through her lorgnette, "Have you a visitor? Shall we disturb you? But, really you can make such delicious coffee, and I cannot endure the hotel coffee!"
"Where is the monkey? Where is the monkey?" cried the two children, running up to Johannes.
Johannes stood up, in confusion. The two winsome children encircled him. He scented the exquisite perfume of their luxuriant hair and their rich dress. He felt their warm breath, their soft hands. He was charmed, through and through—possessed by delightful emotions. The little girls caressed him while they, asked after the monkey, until the gently reproachful "Olga!—Frieda!" sounded again.
Then they went and sat with Johannes on the sofa, one each side of him. The mother lighted a cigarette.
"Now proceed with your talking," said she, "so that I can be learning a little." Then in English: "If you listen quietly, girls, and are not troublesome, you may stay here."
Van Lieverlee had risen, put aside his Turkish pipe, grasped the lapel of his skirtless dinner coat with his left hand, and was gesticulating with the right, in front of Johannes and the countess.
"I ought to explain to him who Windekind, Wisterik, or—What is his name? Wistarik?... and Pluizer, are, Mevrouw. You know, do you not, those characters in Johannes' life?"
"I—I—do not recall them," said the lady, "but that is nothing—speak out. Do not mind me. I do not count. I am only a silly creature."