Madame van Raat allowed herself, as usual, to be fascinated by that caressing voice, that sunny smile, and sympathetic expression.
“You naughty girl! to make fun of my old age! Elly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!” and she threw her arms round Eline’s neck and kissed her forehead. “And how is it with Betsy? is she not very troublesome?” she whispered.
“Oh—really, Betsy isn’t so bad; she is only a little—a little hasty, just in her way of speaking, you know. All the Veres have hasty tempers, I as well; only papa I never remember to have seen in a temper; but then papa was a man without his equal. Betsy and I get along splendidly. Of course you can’t help a little bickering now and then, if you are always together like that; I think if I even lived with you that could not be helped.”
“Well, I wish you would come and try it.”
“Come, I should be much too troublesome to you. Now you [[63]]think me very nice, because you don’t see me very often; but if you were to see me every day——” and she laughed lightly.
“Did you ever see such a girl? Just as if I had a temper!”
“Oh no, I didn’t mean that; but really, au fond, Betsy is an affectionate girl, and I assure you Henk has a charming wife in her.”
“Maybe; but—but if I had had the choice, I think I know whom I should have chosen for my son’s wife, Betsy, or—somebody else.” She laid her hand on Eline’s head and gave the girl a look full of meaning, a faint, sad smile about the pinched mouth.
Eline felt a little frightened. Madame van Raat’s words called to mind her own old thoughts; thoughts long passed and nearly forgotten, in which she had felt that sudden longing for Henk, the vague desire to lean on him for support. Ah, those thoughts! they seemed so far off and hazy, as though they were but mere ghosts and shadows of thoughts. They had lost all charm, they even assumed something grotesque, that all but made her smile.
“Oh, my dear madam,” she murmured, with her rippling laugh, “who knows how unhappy he would have been then, whilst now—he is a little under the slipper, ’tis true, but Betsy has rather small feet.”