Louis Couperus

“ It was a pitiful sight, to see that old man, shapeless as a crumbling mass, huddled in a chair; to hear him exclaim, "Well-well ... yes-yes ... oh, yes!" to see him cry; but Adèle remained composed. Ottilie Steyn was not so; she wept bitterly; and they all saw that she was mourning the death of a father, though not any of them had uttered the word, not even quietly among themselves.
Next morning, Steyn had an interview with the solicitor; and, when he came home, he said to his wife:
"Adèle has a legacy of thirty thousand guilders; Elly and you get something over a hundred thousand each." ”

“ You're so like your father and I loved your father, oh, more than Steyn, ever so much more than Steyn! Steyn has wrecked my life. I ought to have stayed with your father and all of you, with you and John and Mary. Don't speak so harshly, my boy. It hurts me so. Do be nice again to your mother. She has nothing, nothing left in her life: Lot is married; the old man is dead. She has nothing left. No one will ever be nice to her again, if you aren't. And in the old days ... in the old days everybody used to be so very nice to her ”

“ Ottilie Steyn was under the influence of emotion. She could be silent when she wished and so she had never spoken about it; but she suspected, she knew almost for certain that Takma was her father and she had loved him as a father.
"He was always so good to me," she said, in English, to Hugh Trevelley, her son. "I shall miss him badly."
"He was your father," said Hugh, coolly.
"Not at all," Ottilie protested. "You know nothing about it, Hugh. People are always talking." ”