Louis Couperus

“ And she stared at Takma's chair. Her old, dried-up eyes did not weep; they merely stared, intensely. She remained sitting straight up in her chair. The past heaved up before her eyes; there was a great buzzing all around her. But she remained sitting upright and staring before her.
"When did he die?" she asked, at last.
Ottilie Steyn told her, in a very few words. She was crying, not her mother. The old, old woman saw herself as she was, more than sixty years ago. ”

“ Meanwhile the Thing passed ... and stared at Harold, stared into his eyes, which were almost closed with pain. The Thing! Harold had known it since his early boyhood; Daan had known it for a few months and had come home from India, to his brother, because of it; upstairs, because of the old woman, who knew it, Stefanie and Anton both guessed it, but both refused to know it, lest they should be disturbed in the pursuit of their own lives; but downstairs Adèle and Steyn also knew it, because of the letter torn into two, four, eight pieces, the letter which the old man had been unable to destroy. ”

“ The hanging lamp above the table in the middle of the room cast down a circle of light; the rest of the room remained in shadow: the walls, the chair, the empty chair opposite. The companion had gone, when the old woman asked, suddenly:
"And and Mr. Takma, Ottilie?"
"Yes, Mamma? ..."
"Is ... is he ill, also? ..."
The daughter was startled by the expression on her mother's face; the dark eyes stared wide....
"Mamma, Mamma, what's the matter?"
"Is he ill ... or is he ... also ..."
"Ill? Yes, he's ill too, Mamma...." She did not finish.... ”