The Later Life Part 24

"She's in love with Hans."

"Hush!" she whispered, trembling, and laid her hand on his hand. "Hush!"

"She is in love with Hans."

"How do you know?"

"I see it.... It radiates from their whole being...."

They both of them looked at Van der Welcke and Marianne. The two were whispering together with a glance and a smile, half-hidden behind a fan, while Paul, Gerrit and Van Vreeswijck were in the midst of an eager discussion and Addie gallantly entertaining Aunt Adeline, who was smiling gently.

"Please hush!" Constance entreated again, very pale. "I know she's in love with him."

"You know it?"

"Yes."

"Has she told you?"

"No. But I see it radiating out of her, as you see it. But she is no danger ... to my domestic happiness. That happiness lies in my son, not in my husband."

"I like Hans," he said, almost reproachfully. "I have always liked him, perhaps just because he was always a child--and I already a man--when we were boys. He is still a child. He also ... loves her. You see, I say different things from other people, because I don't know how to talk...."

"I know," she whispered, "that he loves her."

"You know?"

"Yes."

"Has he told you?"

"No. But I see it radiating out of him as I do out of her."

"So do I."

"Hush, please hush!"

"What's the use of hushing? Everybody sees it."

"No, not everybody."

"If we see it, everybody sees it."

"No."

"I say yes. I know that your brothers see it."

"No.... Please, please ... don't speak of it, don't speak of it, don't speak of it!"

"She is happy!"

"She must be suffering as well."

"But she gives herself up to her happiness. She is young, she does not reflect ... any more than Hans does. I am sorry ... for your sake, mevrouw."

"It is no sorrow to me for my own sake.... I am sorry ... for hers. Don't be angry with the child! Who knows what she suffers! Don't be angry because she ... annoyed you at dinner, with her questions."

"One can't control one's likes ... or one's dislikes."

"No. But I do like the girl ... and I want you to try, as our friend, not to hate her.... How seriously we're talking! I can't talk like that: I'm not used to it. I confess to you honestly, I'm getting frightened...."

"Of me?..."

"You're too big ... to hate a child like that."

"I'm not big at all.... I am very human. I sometimes feel very small. But you are right: to hate that child, for a single word which she said, for a touch of hostility which I felt in her, is very small. Thanks for the rebuke. I won't hate her, I promise you."

At first, the sombre austerity of his frown and his expression had almost terrified her. She now saw his lips laugh and his face light up.

"I'm going to apologize."

"No, don't do that."

"Yes, I will."

He went to Marianne; and Constance heard him say:

"Freule, I want to make friends."

She did not catch what Marianne answered, but she heard the little bells of Marianne's laughter and saw her put out her hand to Brauws. It was a reconciliation; and yet she felt that the hostility continued to exist, irreconcilably, like a hostility that was too deep-seated, going down to the fundamental antagonism of caste, even though this was innate in her and cultivated in him....

"And why," she thought, "do not I feel that hostility?..."

CHAPTER XVIII

There was a big official dinner at Van Naghel's; and the guests were expected in three-quarters of an hour.

"Mamma," whined Huigje to Frances, as she was dressing, "what's happening?"

"There are people coming," said Frances, without looking up.

"What sort of people, Mamma?"

"Oh, there's a dinner-party, dear!" said Frances, irritably.