"Hans," said Brauws, "how is it possible for any one to change as little as you have done? In all these years! You are just as incapable as in the old days of believing in anything serious."

"If you imagine that there's been nothing serious in my life," said Van der Welcke, vexed.

And, with great solemnity, he once more told his friend about Constance, about his marriage, his shattered career.

Brauws smiled.

"You laugh, as if it all didn't matter!" cried Van der Welcke, angrily.

"What does anything matter?" said Brauws.

"And your old Peace?"

"Very little as yet, at any rate.... Perhaps later.... Luckily, there's the future."

But Van der Welcke shrugged his shoulders and demolished Peace in a few ready-made sentences: there would always be war; it was one of those Utopian ideas....

Brauws only smiled.

"You must come and dine one day, to meet Vreeswijck," said Van der Welcke.

Brauws' smile disappeared suddenly:

"No, my dear fellow, honestly...."

"Why not?"

"I'm not the man for dinners."

"It won't be a dinner. Only Vreeswijck. My wife will be very pleased."

"Yes, but I shall be putting your wife out...."

"Not a bit. I'll see if she's at home and introduce you to her."

"No, my dear fellow, no, honestly.... I'm no ladies' man. I'm nothing of a drawing-room person. I never know what to say."

"You surely haven't grown shy!"

"Yes, almost. With ladies ... I really don't know what to say. No, old chap, honestly....."

His voice was full of anxious dismay.

"I think it's mean of you, to refuse to come and dine with us, quite quietly."

"Yes ... and then it'll be a dinner of twenty people. I know."

"I shouldn't know where to get them from. We see n.o.body. n.o.body."

"No, no.... Well, yes, perhaps later."

He raised his hand deprecatingly, almost impatiently:

"Come," he said, "let's go for a walk."

And, as though fearing lest Van der Welcke should still find a moment to introduce him to his wife, Brauws hurried him down the stairs. Once outside, he breathed again, recovered his usual placidity.

CHAPTER IX

"I went last night with Van Vreeswijck to hear Brauws speak at Diligentia," said Van der Welcke, one morning. "The fellow's inspired. He speaks extempore and magnificently; he's an orator. A splendid fellow, the way he spoke: it was astounding.... I knew him years ago at Leiden. He was a queer chap even then. He did not belong to any particular club, not to ours either: his family is nothing out of the way. His father has a factory, I believe, somewhere in Overijssel. He himself has nothing of the tradesman about him. He used to coach us dull beggars and help us get up our examinations. I should never have pa.s.sed without him. He knows about everything, he's not only good at law. He's read everything; he has a tremendous memory. He's travelled a lot and done all sorts of things, but I can't find out exactly what. Now he's lecturing. This evening, he's lecturing in Amsterdam. I asked him to dinner, but he refuses to come, says he's shy with ladies. Silly fellow!"

The newspapers printed lengthy reports of Brauws' speeches on Peace. He spoke in all the large Dutch towns and in many of the smaller ones. When he was to speak at the Hague for the second time, Van der Welcke said, excitedly:

"Constance, you must absolutely go and hear Brauws this evening. He's grand. You know, I can never listen to any one for more than a quarter of an hour...."

"Nor I for more than three minutes," said Paul, who was there. "But I love to talk for an hour on end myself."

"But Brauws: the fellow electrifies you. Though I think that Peace idea of his all rot. But that makes no difference: the chap speaks magnificently.... I'm dining with Van Vreeswijck and we're going on together."

Paul asked Constance to go with him. That evening, the little hall of Diligentia--the proceeds were to go to the fund for the Boer wounded--was full: Constance and Paul had difficulty in finding seats.

"All sorts of people," Paul observed. "A curious audience. An olla podrida of every set in the Hague. Here and there, the very select people have turned up, no doubt brought by Van Vreeswijck: look, there are the Van der Heuvel Steijns; and there's the French minister; and there, as I live, is Van Naghel, with his colleague from the Treasury.... And look, there's Isidore the hairdresser.... A bit of everything, a bit of everything.... How brotherly and sisterly the Hague has become this evening: it makes me feel quite sentimental!"

Brauws made his entrance, to faint applause.

"The fellow's not in evening-dress; he's wearing a frock-coat. I suppose he's playing the demagogue or the preacher."

But he had to stop, for Brauws at once began to speak from the rostrum. He had nothing with him, not a note; and his voice was firm but very gentle. He began with a masterly exposition of the present political situation, sketching it in broad outlines, like an enormous picture, for all those people in front of him. His voice became clearer; his eyes looked through the hall, steady and bright, like two shining stars. Constance, who seldom read any political news, listened, was at once interested, wondered vaguely for a moment that she lived like that, from day to day, without knowing the times in which she lived. The present took shape before her in those few sentences of Brauws'. Then he spoke of Peace, which would be essential sooner or later, which was already making its joyous way into the mind of the nations, even though they were actually still waging war upon one another. It was as though wide and radiant vistas opened under his words; and his voice, at first so gentle, now rang through the hall, triumphantly confirming the glad tidings. He spoke without pausing, for two hours on end; and, when he stopped, the hall was breathless for a moment, the audience forgot to cheer. Then indeed applause burst forth, jubilant; but by that time Brauws was gone. They called him back, but he did not return; and the audience streamed out.

Constance and Paul were in the crush, when they saw Van Vreeswijck and Van der Welcke behind them.

"Mevrouw," said Van Vreeswijck, bowing. "What do you think of our friend?"

"Wonderful," said Constance, excitedly.

"The fellow speaks well," said Paul, "but he is too earnest. He means all he says. People don't like that in the long run."

Van der Welcke protested vehemently, as he pushed through the close-packed crowd, and declared that he was converted, that he believed in Peace.

They reached the street: the hum of the crowd floated through the wintry air.

"How excited our stolid Haguers are!" said Paul.

"There's our man," said Van Vreeswijck.