Louis Couperus

“ Strange, thought Elly to herself, Steyn also had pictures of dogs and horses in his room; Steyn also was a hunting man, a man of out-door pursuits; Steyn also was good-looking. She smiled at her reflection that it was always the same sort of manliness that had attracted Ottilie; she smiled just as Lot sometimes smiled at his mother.
"You two are very like each other," said Pauws, as they sat down to table. "Look, children, here's what I've got for you. Everything's ready, you see. Hors d'ceuvres. ”

“ I stick to it that you have to get married. By the mayor and by the parson. You two have been married by the mayor; but Ottilie refuses to be married at all. And I'm expected to think it natural and enlightened and I don't know what. I can't do it. I'm sorry for her sake. It's all very well: she's a great artist and can behave differently from an ordinary woman; but, if one fine day she returns to our ordinary circles, she'll find that she's made herself impossible.... How would you have friends and acquaintances gather round such a family? ”

“ And ...... and will you see Ottilie there?"
"Of course we shall," said Lot. "That's right, that's right.... Yes, how can you expect a family like ours to keep up a circle of decent acquaintances? ... Ottilie writes to me now and again.... She's living with an Italian. ... Why they don't get married is more than I can make out."
"And why should they get married?" asked Lot.
"But, Lot," said Elly, "you and I did!"
"We are more conventional than Ottilie. I am more conventional than Ottilie ever was. I should never have dared to suggest to you not to get married. ”