"Lot and Elly have become rich all of a sudden."
"Remember, Ina, won't you?" said her father.
He shook hands with Steyn and went straight off to Roelofsz'.
"Did he die during the night?" asked Ina.
Steyn gave the details. He let out that he had telegraphed to Lot and to his wife, Aunt Ottilie.
"Why Aunt Ottilie?"
"Because ..." said Steyn, hesitating, regretting his slip of the tongue. "It's better she should be there."
Ina understood. Aunt Ottilie was old Takma's daughter: she was sure to get a legacy too.
"How much do you think the old man will leave?... Haven't you any idea? Oh, not that it interests me to know: other people's money-matters are le moindre de mes soucis!... Don't you think Papa very depressed, Steyn? He has been so depressed since he saw Uncle Daan again.... Steyn, don't you know why Uncle Daan has come to Holland?"
She was still yearning with curiosity and remained ever unsatisfied. She went about with her gnawing hunger for days and weeks on end; she did not know to whom to turn. The craving to know was constantly with her. It had spoilt her sleep lately. She had tried to start the subject once more with Aunt Stefanie, to get behind it at all costs; but Aunt Stefanie had told her firmly that she—whatever it might be—refused to know, because she did not want to have anything to do with old sins and things that were not proper; even though they had to do with her mother, they did not concern her. It was Hell lying in wait for them; and, after Aunt Stefanie's penitential homily, Ina knew that she would get nothing out of her aunt, not even the hazy recollection that might have loomed for a moment before her aunt's eyes. What was it, what could it be that Papa had known for sixty years, that Uncle Daan had learnt quite lately and that had brought him to Holland? Oh, to whom, to whom was she to turn?