time at the university! What does it all mean, what you and he have done?"
The old woman rejected Emilie's caresses:
"No, child, don't kiss me; Granny is vexed; she doesn't want to be kissed. . . . The family isn't what it was. It is a grandeur déchue, child, a regular grandeur déchue. The Van Lowes were something once. There was never much money, but we didn't care about money and we always managed. But the family used to count . . . in India, at the Hague. Which of you will ever have a career like your Grandpapa's, like your Papa's? No, we shall never see another governor-general in the family, nor yet a cabinet-minister. It's a grandeur déchue, a grandeur déchue. . . . Ah, child, Granny has too much trouble to bear, too much trouble in her old age! Your Papa's death was a great blow to Granny; Mamma has changed so much since, changed so much. And Granny never sees Mamma now, never. Otto and Frances, once in a way, and dear Louise; but the rest of you are all scattered, you are all independent of one another. Oh, it is so nice to keep together, one big family together! Why need Mamma have gone to Baarn? There's nothing but rich tradespeople there, not our class at all. . . . And now—have you heard, dear?—poor Uncle Ernst . . . Yes, child . . . it's quite true: isn't it sad, poor fellow? And hasn't Granny really too much to bear in her
