Lot tried to calm her. And he took her in his arms and patted her back, as one does to an excited child:
"Come, Mummy, come!"
She now burst into sobs. But he remonstrated with her gently, said that she was exaggerating, that she had been overwrought lately, that he absolutely refused to get married if she did not become calmer; and very prettily he flirted with her in this way and persuaded her to go to bed, tucked her in, shook up her pillows:
"Come, Mummy, go to sleep now and don't be silly. Let Steyn go for his walk in peace, don't think of Steyn, don't think of anything...."
She acquiesced, under the stroke of his delicate hand on her hair, her cheek.
"Will you go to sleep now, you silly Mummy?... I say, Mummy, what a soft skin you have!..."
[1] Pronounced "Lo," as in the French "Charlot."
[2] The Witte and the Plaats are the two leading clubs at the Hague.
[3] Dutch East Indies: Java.
[4] British India.