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"Constance?"
"Yes, Constance!"
"Constance?"
"Yes, Constance!"
"The bad one!" screamed Auntie Rine.
"Yes, Rine, the bad one, Rine. She's a wicked woman, Rine, a wicked woman! She has a lover!..."
"A lover?"
"Yes, Rine. Can you understand her being here? Can you understand that she's not ashamed? Can you understand her showing herself? Yes, Rine, she's a wicked woman, she's ... she's...."
"What is she, Tine?"
"She's ... she's a trollop, Rine!" Auntie Tine yelled, shrilly. "A common trollop! A trollop!"
"Christine!" cried Mrs. van Lowe. "Christine! Dorine!"
And she stood up and tottered, with outstretched arms, towards the two old sisters. But there was a loud scream and a laugh that cut into everybody like a knife: Constance had fainted in Paul's arms....
The boy, Addie, looked round with a haughty glance. He had heard everything, as had Van der Welcke, who stood listening apprehensively at the door of the boudoir. The son saw his father's deathly-pale face staring like a mask. He saw the horror of his grandmother and of all his uncles and aunts. He now saw his mother prostrate in a chair, her head hanging back, like a corpse. And his boyish lips, with their faint shading of down, curved into a scornful smile as he said:
"It's all about nothing!..."
[23] Enough of, have done with.
[24] To rake up old times.
[25] Fuss, unpleasantness.
[26] Hullo!
[27] Bad luck.
[28] Oh, nonsense!
[29] Business.
[30] Aunt Ruyvenaer here perpetrates the blunder, common among half-caste ladies, of mixing up two separate Dutch proverbs.
THE END
