'I do not know what I was thinking of. Réné always reminds me of my old friend Paul Zabaroff; they are very alike.'
'I have seen the present Prince Zabaroff,' said Wanda, wondering what the purpose of her guest's words were. 'He was not, as I remember him, much like M. de Sabran.'
'Oh, of course he was not equal to your Apollo,' said Madame Brancka, winding Ottilie's long hair round her fingers.
'You have had enough of them; they must not worry you,' said their mother, and she dismissed the children with a word.
'In what marvellous control you keep them,' said Madame Olga. 'Now, my children never obeyed me, let me scream at them as I would.'
'I do not think screaming has much effect on anyone, young or old.'
'It paralyses a man. But I suppose a child can always out-scream one?'
'Probably. A child never respects any person who loses their calmness. As for men, you are better versed in their follies than I.'
'But do you and Réné absolutely never quarrel?'
'Quarrel! My dear Olga, how very bürgerlich an idea.'