But the girls, both curious, continued to talk about the nickname and they sounded Karel and also Marianne and Marietje van Naghel.
No, none of them, either, knew what the name meant. But Karel was determined to find out and did find out:
"I know," he said to his little sister, Marie.
"I know," Marie whispered to the Van Saetzema girls.
But Marietje van Saetzema did not yet quite understand, but she would not let this appear, because Caroline would have thought her such a baby. If Auntie had never married an Italian, how could she have a son who was an Italian?
The nickname came to the ears of Herman Ruyvenaer, the youngest son of Uncle and Aunt, a lean little brown sinjo of fifteen, who mentioned the nickname at home to his sisters Toetie, Dot and Pop.
"Allah, it's too bad!" said the girls. "It's a shame of those boys, Mamma; just listen...."
"Oh, no, I don't believe it," said Aunt Ruyvenaer, when she heard. "Gossip, I say; kassian, Constance!"
But Uncle Ruyvenaer told her that it was so.
"But how do you know?"