“What do those strangers matter to you?” asked Duco.
They were sitting in his studio: Mrs. van der Staal, Cornélie and the girls, Annie and Emilie. Annie was pouring out the tea; and they were discussing Miss Taylor and Urania.
“I am a stranger to you too!” said Cornélie.
“You are not a stranger to me, to us. But Miss Taylor and Urania don’t matter. Hundreds of shadows pass through our lives: I don’t see them and don’t feel for them.”
“And am I not a shadow?”
“I have talked to you too much in the Borghese and on the Palatine to look upon you as a shadow.”
“Rudyard is a dangerous shadow,” said Annie.
“He has no hold over us,” Duco replied.
Mrs. van der Staal looked at Cornélie. She understood the enquiring glance and said, laughing:
“No, he has no hold over me either. Still, if I felt the need of a religion, I mean an ecclesiastical religion, I would rather be a Roman Catholic than a Protestant. But, as things are ...”