"Perhaps it's better not to mix yourself up in it at all. You would do wiser to be careful. You never know what hornets' nest you're bringing about your ears."
"It happened sixty years ago. It dates sixty years back. What an immense time!" said Ina, hypnotized by the thought.
"That's certainly very long ago. The whole thing is out of date!" said D'Herbourg, pretending to be indifferent, though inwardly alarmed.
"No," said Ina, shaking the white bird of paradise, "it's something that is not yet past. It can't be. But Papa hoped that, before very long ..."
"What?"
"It would be past."
They both looked very pale:
"Ina, Ina, do be careful!" said D'Herbourg. "You don't know what you're meddling with!"
"No!" she said, like a woman in a trance.
She must know, she was determined to know. She resolved to speak to her father that evening.