"Yes-yes, child, yes-yes ... a young man!"
"There's a good many years between you and Grandmamma, isn't there?"
"Yes-yes-yes!" said Dr. Roelofsz, confirming the statement vehemently. "Nine years' difference, nine years.... And with Takma ... five years ... aha, yes, five years ... that's the difference between him and me ..."
"It's so nice that you and Grandmamma and Mr. Takma have always kept together," Ina continued, softly. "First in India ... and afterwards always here, at the Hague."
"Yes-yes, we just kept together...."
"Ssuch old fr-r-riends!" said Aunt Floor, with feeling.
But she winked at Ina, to convey that Dr. Roelofsz, in spite of the difference of nine years, had nevertheless been a very intimate friend of Grandmamma's.
"Doctor," said Ina, suddenly, "is it true that, sixty years ago...?"
She stopped, not knowing what to say. She had begun her sentence like that, craftily, and now broke it off deliberately. The old doctor had a shock: his paunch flung itself from left to right and now hung over his sound leg.
"Wha-at?" he almost screamed.