Instead of the North Holland cap she wore a diadem of sparkling stars, or rays of——
“Dinner is ready, and papa and mamma invite you to come out to the dining-room. Are you still sore after your fall?” It was little Sietske.
“I didn’t fall.”
“I mean from your fall on the table in the coffee-house. How comical! Well, if you are all right again, we’re going out this evening—papa, mamma, William, Hermann, you, I—all! We’re going to the theatre!”
Sietske had understood her orders.
“Going out?—to the theatre? But my mother——”
“Papa will attend to that. Don’t worry; he will arrange everything.”
Once out in the hall, Walter hesitated again. He motioned to Sietske and took her back into the room.
“Sietske, who is that?”
“That is a great-great-great-great-grandmother of ours.”