But Van der Welcke flared up:
"Van Naghel, please keep those non-committal expressions for the Chamber. My wife asked you and I now ask you: will you receive us this winter in a way that will make your set, which was once ours, take us up, even though we rub shoulders with De Staffelaer's nephews and nieces and even though people talk about what happened fifteen years ago?"
"Van der Welcke," said Van Naghel, nettled, "the expressions I choose to employ in the Chamber are my own affair."
"Answer my question!"
"Henri!" Constance implored.
"Answer my question!" insisted Van der Welcke, full of suppressed rage, feeling ready to smash everything to pieces.
"Well then, no!" said Van Naghel, haughtily.
"No?..."
"It's impossible! I have too many attacks to endure as it is, in the Chamber, in the press, everywhere; and I can't do what you ask. You have made yourself impossible, to our Hague society, you and your wife, the wife of your former chief; and it's simply impossible that I should receive you in my house on the same footing as my friends, acquaintances and colleagues. That is no reason why we should not continue to be brothers and sisters."
"And do you think I would wish for or accept your brotherliness on those terms?"