Part 59 (1/2)

”Yes, do come along!” said Auntie Lot to Ruyvenaer, ”_Ajo_,[26] shall we have a game? Come on, who's going to play?... You, Saetzema? Come along ... Toetie? Come along. Cut for partners.... Come, Paul ... Do!”

”No, Aunt, I won't play, thanks.”

”Oh, it's difficult this evening!” said Auntie. ”Van Naghel and Bertha not yet here, eh? Come on.... _Ajo_ now, let's play! Ah, there are Karel and Cateau! Why are you so late, eh?... _Ajo_ then, cut for partners ...

let's have a rubber!”

And Auntie at once enlisted Karel and Cateau, refused to let them go, forced matters, insisted on having a nice, quiet, friendly rubber, as at all the usual ”family-groups.” But Cateau at once noticed the excitement infecting everybody in both the big rooms with restlessness and, catching sight of Adolphine, she managed, before cutting, to escape Auntie Lot and ask:

”Why, Adolph-ine, what are you cry-ing for? Are you up-set about any-thing?”

”The hound! The cad! And he wants to challenge my husband in addition!”

”Chal-lenge him?” cried the terrified Cateau. ”A reg-u-lar du-el! No!

The bro-thers and sis-ters will nev-er consent to _that!_ There's too much been talked and _writ-ten_ about the family as it _is_!” she whispered. ”Writ-ten and _print-ed_!”

And Cateau's whining words bore evidence to the tragic alarm that fluttered through her sleek, broad-bosomed respectability, while her owl's eyes opened rounder and wider than ever.

But Auntie Lot came to fetch Cateau and dragged her by the arm to the card-table. The rubber was made up: Auntie, Karel, Cateau and Toetie.

But they none of them paid attention to their cards, which fell on the table, one after the other, without the least effort of intelligence on the part of the players, as though obeying the laws of some weird and fantastic game of bridge.... Auntie was constantly trying to ruff with spades though clubs were trumps:

”Oh, what _ka.s.sian_!”[27] said Auntie.

”Ka-rel,” said Cateau, excitedly, ”as the eld-est bro-ther, you _must_ inter-fere and _stop_ that du-el!”

”I? Thank you: not if I know it!”

”You must, Ka-rel: You are the eld-est bro-ther.... Of course, Van Na-ghel”--and she p.r.o.nounced the name with a certain reverence--”is the hus-band of your eld-est sist-er; but if he, if Van”--reverentially--”Van Na-a-ghel refuses to inter-fere, then it's _your_ duty, Ka-rel, as the eld-est bro-ther, to stop that du-el.”

”It won't come off!” said Toetie, good-humouredly.

”_Ma.s.sa_,[28] brothers-in-law don't fight!” said Auntie Lot. ”But Adolphine shouldn't have behaved like that.... Very wrong of Adolphine.”

”But it's sa-ad, all the same, _very_ sa-ad, for Adolph-ine, all those art-ides,” whined Cateau. ”They up-set her. She's cry-ing, And it's anything but plea-sant for Van Na-ghel, don't you _think_, Un-cle?”

This to Uncle Ruyvenaer, who was standing behind her.

”It's beastly, it's beastly!” said Uncle. ”They ought never to have come and lived here. It was very wrong of Marie to encourage them.”

”Oh, well, Herman,” said Auntie, ”you must remember she's the mother!”

”Just for that reason....”

”Oh, Papa!” said Toetie, wearily. ”That old _perkara_!”[29]

”Nothing but _korek_ in _tempo doeloe_ in Holland,” said Auntie, crossly.

”Well, Aunt-ie,” said Cateau, taking offence, ”they're not al-ways so mor-al in the Ea-east!”

”But there's not so much talk in Java as here,” said Auntie, angrily.