The butler had already started filling plates with soup, and a few of the servants put the three bowls of soup on the table, on top of the folded napkins lying on the plates. Then, once more, they continued to wait, while the soup steamed faintly. Another boy filled the water glasses with large cubes of ice.

The young girl had come closer, still humming. She may have been seventeen and was just like her mother, now divorced, the Commissioner’s first wife, a pretty young Eurasian woman who now lived in Batavia and, so it was said, ran a discreet gambling den. She had a pale olive complexion, with the occasional hint of a fruitlike blush, and lovely black hair that curled naturally at the temples and was worn up in a very large bun. Her black pupils sparkled in a moist blue-and-white pool, around which her heavy lashes played, up and down, up and down. Her mouth was small and a little plump, and her upper lip had the merest suggestion of dark down. She was not tall, and had slightly too full a figure, rather like a forced rose that blossoms prematurely. She wore a white piqué skirt and a white linen blouse with lace inserts, and round her neck was a bright-yellow ribbon that went very well with her olive pallor, which sometimes suddenly flushed, as if with a rush of blood.

The young man from the front veranda had also come strolling in. He resembled his father, with a thick blond moustache. Scarcely twenty-three, he looked at least five years older, dressed in a Russian linen suit but with a collar and tie.

Finally Van Oudijck himself arrived, his resolute step approaching swiftly, as if he were eating briefly before returning to work. All three sat down without a word and spooned up their soup.

“What time is Mama arriving tomorrow?” asked Theo.

“At eleven-thirty,” replied Van Oudijck, and turning to his personal servant behind him, said: “Kario, don’t forget that the mistress must be collected from the station at eleven-thirty tomorrow.”

“Yes, kanjeng,” whispered Kario.

A fish dish was served.

“Doddy,” said Van Oudijck. “Who were you at the gate with just now?”

Doddy, taken aback, slowly looked at her father, her eyes sparkling.

“At… the gate?… No one… With Theo maybe.”

“Were you with your sister at the gate?” asked Van Oudijck.

The young man’s thick blond brows creased.

“It’s possible… I don’t know… can’t remember…”

All three were silent. They ate their way hurriedly through dinner in an air of boredom. Five or six servants, in white jackets with red linen facings, moved about softly with their flat-toed gait, serving quickly and silently. The meal continued with steak and salad, and pudding and fruit.

“Nothing but steak…” grumbled Theo.

“Yes, that cook!” said Doddy with her throaty laugh. “She always serves steak when Mama’s not here; she couldn’t care less when Mama’s not here. She has no imagination. It’s too bad…”

Twenty minutes later they had finished eating, after which Van Oudijck went back to his office. Doddy and Theo strolled to the front of the house.

“Boring…” said Doddy with a yawn. “Come on, shall we have a game of billiards?”

In the first inner gallery, behind the satin curtain, was a small billiard table.

“Come on then,” said Theo.

They began to play.

“Why was I supposed to have been with you at the gate?”

“Oh… really!” said Doddy.

“Well, why?”

“Papa don’t need know.”

“Who were you with, then? Addy?”

“Of course!” said Doddy. “Is band playing tonight?”

“I think so.”

“Come on, let’s go, yes?”

“No, I don’t feel like it.”

“Oh, why ever not?”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“Are you coming?”

“No.”

“With Mama you would, no?” said Doddy angrily. “I know that very well. You always go to band with Mama.”

“What do you know… you little madam!”

“What do I know?” she laughed. “What do I know? I know what I know.”

“Eh?” he said teasingly, with a crude attempt to catch her on the rebound. “You and Addy, eh?”

“Well, and what about you and Mama…”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“You’re crazy,” he said.

“No need hide from me! Anyway, everyone says.”

“Let them say.”

“It’s really bad of you, though!”

“Oh, go to hell…”

He threw down his cue angrily and marched off. She followed him.

“Look, Theo… don’t be angry. Do come with me to band.”

“No.”

“I won’t say any more,” she cajoled sweetly.

She was frightened that he would stay angry, and then she would have no one at all; then she would be bored to death.

“I promised Addy, and I can’t go alone…”

“Well, if you don’t say such stupid things again…”

“Yes, I promise. Theo dear, come on then…”

She was already in the garden.

Van Oudijck appeared on the threshold of his office, the door of which was always open, but which was cut off from the inner gallery by a large screen.

“Doddy!” he called out.

“Yes, Papa?”

“Would you make sure there are some flowers in Mama’s room tomorrow?”

His voice was almost embarrassed and he was blushing.

Doddy suppressed her giggles.

“All right, Papa… I’ll make sure.”

“Where are you off to?”

“With Theo… to hear band.”

Van Oudijck flushed with anger.

“To the band? You might ask me first!” he cried in sudden fury.

Doddy pouted.

“I don’t like your going out without my knowing where. This afternoon, too, you had gone out when I wanted to go for a walk with you.”

“Well, suda, that’s that then,” said Doddy, crying.

“You can go,” said Van Oudijck, “but I want you to ask me first.”

“No, I don’t feel like going any more!” Doddy wept.