Old People and the Things That Pass

" Steyn's deep bass voice was heard in the passage: "Come, Jack, come along, dog! Are you coming with your master?" The terrier gave a loud, glad bark and came rushing madly down the stairs, till he seemed to be tumbling over his own paws. "Oh, that voice of Steyn's!" Ottilie hissed between her teeth angrily and turned a number of pages of her novel. Charles Pauws glanced at her quietly, with his little smile, his laugh at Mamma's ways. He was sitting with his mother after dinner, sipping his cup of coffee before going on to Elly. Steyn went out with Jack; the evening silence settled upon the little house and the gas hummed in the impersonal and unhomely sitting- room. Charles Pauws looked down at the tips of his boots and admired their fit. "Where has Steyn gone?" asked Mamma; and her voice grumbled uneasily. "Gone for a walk with Jack," said Charles Pauws."