"They go to the at-home days," laughed Adeline, "but not to the dinners. And they have their own little Indian clique, which is very lively, but of course a thing quite by itself."
"Yes," reflected Constance. "A big family like ours necessarily has all sorts of sections...."
"And that is why Mamma is so devoted to her 'family-group,' in which all the different elements meet."
"Sometimes we don't see one another for weeks and months at a time, except on those Sunday evenings...."
"And tell me: Karel and Cateau...."
"Ka-rel and Ca-teau," said Gerrit, mimicking Cateau, "live ve-ry com-fortably and have ve-ry nice little din-ners all by their lit-tle selves, don't they, Adel-ine?"
They laughed.
"I was always fond of Karel," said Constance. "Of Karel and you, Gerrit.... Do you remember, in the river, behind the Palace at Buitenzorg...."
He looked at her long, seeking their childish past in her eyes:
"Yes, you were a pretty child then. You used to act all sorts of fairy-tales with us, among those great, spreading leaves: stories of a princess and fairies and knights and I don't know what. You were a darling of a child: such a dainty, pale little elf, in your white cotton baadjet[9]; and your brothers were in love with you.... But two years later, when I was a boy of sixteen and you fifteen, you suddenly became a stuck-up girl, in a long ball-dress, and you refused to dance with any one except old staff-officers and the secretary-general...."