"_All pleasure must be bought at the price of pain. The true pay the
price before they enjoy it; the false, after they enjoy it_."
"My dear Dick, I am exceedingly concerned to find you in such a
taking,--a soldier who has known some of the finest women of the day,
moping about a Dutch school-girl! Pshaw! Don't be a fool! I had a much
better opinion of you."
"'Tis a kind of folly that runs in the family, aunt. I have heard that
you preferred Colonel Gordon to a duke."
"Now, sir, you are ill-natured. Dukes are not uncommon: a man of sense
and sensibility is a treasure. Make me grateful that I secured one."
"Lend me your wit, then, for the same consummation. I assure you that I
consider Katherine Van Heemskirk a treasure past belief. Confess, now,
that she was the loveliest of creatures last night."
"She has truly a fine complexion, and she dances with all the elegance
imaginable. I know, too, that she sings to perfection, and has most
agreeable and obliging manners."
"And a heart which abounds in every tender feeling."
"Oh, indeed, sir! I was not aware that you knew her so well."
"I know that I love her beyond everything, and that I am likely so to
love her all my life."
"Upon my word, Dick, love may live an age--if you don't marry it."
"Let me make you understand that I wish to marry it."
"Oh, indeed, sir! Then the church door stands open. Go in. I suppose the
lady will oblige you so far."
"Pray, my dear aunt, talk sensibly. Give me your advice; you know
already that I value it. What is the first step to be taken?"
"Go and talk with her father. I assure you, no real progress can be made
without it. The girl you think worth asking for; but it is very
necessary for you to know what fortune goes with her beauty."
"If her father refuse to give her to me"--
"That is not to be thought of. I have seen that some of the best of
these Dutch families are very willing to be friendly with us. You come
of a noble race. You wear your sword with honour. You are not far from
the heritage of a great title and estate. If you ask for her fortune,
you offer far above its equivalent, sir."
"I have heard Mr. Neil Semple say that Van Heemskirk is a great stickler
for trade, and that he hates every man who wears a sword."
"You have heard more than you need listen to. I talked to the man an
hour last night. He is as honest as a looking-glass, and I read him all
through with the greatest ease. I am sure that he has a heart very
tender, and devoid of anger or prejudice of any kind."
"That is to be seen. I have discovered already that men who can be very
gentle can also be very rough. But this suspense is intolerable, and not
to be borne. I will go and end it. Pray, what is the hour?"
"It is about three o'clock; a very suitable hour, I think."
"Then give me your good wishes."
"I shall be impatient to hear the result."
"In an hour or two."
"Oh, sir, I am not so foolish as to expect you in an hour or two! When
you have spoken with the father, you will doubtless go home with him and
drink a dish of tea with your divinity. I can imagine your unreasonable
felicity, Dick,--seas of milk, and ships of amber, and all sails set for
the desired haven! I know it all, so I hope you will spare me every
detail,--except, indeed, such as relate to pounds, shillings, and
pence."
It was a very hot afternoon; and Van Heemskirk's store, though open to
the river-breezes, was not by any means a cool or pleasant place. Bram
was just within the doors, marking "Boston" on a number of
flour-barrels, which were being rapidly transferred to a vessel lying at
the wharf. He was absorbed and hurried in the matter, and received the
visitor with rather a cool courtesy; but whether the coolness was of
intention or preoccupation, Captain Hyde did not perceive it. He asked
for Councillor Van Heemskirk, and was taken to his office, a small room,
intensely warm and sunny at that hour of the day.
"Your servant, Captain."
"Yours, most sincerely, Councillor. It is a hot day."
"That is so. We come near to midsummer. Is there anything I can oblige
you in, sir?"
Joris asked the question because the manner of the young man struck him
as uneasy and constrained; and he thought, "Perhaps he has come to
borrow money." It was notorious that his Majesty's officers gambled, and
were often in very great need of it; and, although Joris had not any
intention of risking his gold, he thought it as well to bring out the
question, and have the refusal understood before unnecessary politeness
made it more difficult. He was not, therefore, astonished when Captain
Hyde answered,--
"Sir, you can indeed oblige me, and that in a matter of the greatest
moment."
"If money it be, Captain, at once I may tell you, that I borrow not, and
I lend not."
"Sir, it is not money--in particular."
"So?"
"It is your daughter Katherine."
Then Joris stood up, and looked steadily at the suitor. His large,
amiable face had become in a moment hard and stern; and the light in his
eyes was like the cold, sharp light that falls from drawn steel.
"My daughter is not for you to name. Sir, it is a wrong to her, if you
speak her name."
"By my honour, it is not! Though I come of as good family as any in
England, and may not unreasonably hope to inherit its earldom, I do
assure you, sir, I sue as humbly for your daughter's hand as if she were
a princess."
"Your family! Talk not of it. King nor kaiser do I count better men than
my own fore-goers. Like to like, that is what I say. Your wife seek,
Captain, among your own women."
"I protest that I love your daughter. I wish above all things to make
her my wife."
"Many things men desire, that they come not near to. My daughter is to
another man promised."
"Look you, Councillor, that would be monstrous. Your daughter loves me."
Joris turned white to the lips. "It is not the truth," he answered in a
slow, husky voice.
"By the sun in heaven, it is the truth! Ask her."
"Then a great scoundrel are you, unfit with honest men to talk. Ho! Yes,
your sword pull from its scabbard. Strike. To the heart strike me. Less
wicked would be the deed than the thing you have done."
"In faith, sir, 'tis no crime to win a woman's love."
"No crime it would be to take the guilders from my purse, if my consent
was to it. But into my house to come, and while warm was yet my welcome,
with my bread and wine in your lips, to take my gold, a shame and a
crime would be. My daughter than gold is far more precious."
There was something very impressive in the angry sorrow of Joris. It
partook of his own magnitude. Standing in front of him, it was
impossible for Captain Hyde not to be sensible of the difference between
his own slight, nervous frame, and the fair, strong massiveness of Van
Heemskirk; and, in a dim way, he comprehended that this physical
difference was only the outward and visible sign of a mental and moral
one quite as positive and unchangeable.
Yet he persevered in his solicitation. With a slight impatience of
manner he said, "Do but hear me, sir. I have done nothing contrary to
the custom of people in my condition, and I assure you that with all my
soul I love your daughter."
"Love! So talk you. You see a girl beautiful, sweet, and innocent. Your
heart, greedy and covetous, wants her as it has wanted, doubtless, many
others. For yourself only you seek her. And what is it you ask then!
That _she_ should give up for you her father, mother, home, her own
faith, her own people, her own country,--the poor little one!--for a
cold, cheerless land among strangers, alone in the sorrows and pains
that to all women come. Love! In God's name, what know you of love?"
"No man can love her better."
"What say you? How, then, do I love her? I who carried her--_mijn witte
lammetje_--in these arms before yet she could say to me, 'Fader'!" His
wrath had been steadily growing, in spite of the mist in his eyes and
the tenderness in his voice; and suddenly striking the desk a ponderous
blow with his closed hand, he said with an unmistakable passion, "My
daughter you shall not have. God in heaven to himself take her ere such
sorrow come to her and me!"
[Illustration: "Sir, you are very uncivil"]
"Sir, you are very uncivil; but I am thankful to know so much of your
mind. And, to be plain with you, I am determined to marry your daughter
if I can compass the matter in any way. It is now, then, open war
between us; and so, sir, your servant."
"Stay. To me listen. Not one guilder will I give to my daughter, if"--
"To the devil with your guilders! Dirty money made in dirty traffic"--
"You lie!"
"Sir, you take an infamous advantage. You know, that, being Katherine's
father, I will not challenge you."
"_Christus!_!" roared Joris, "challenge me one hundred times. A fool I
would be to answer you. Life my God gave to me. Well, then, only my God
shall from me take it. See you these arms and hands? In them you will be
as the child of one year. Ere beyond my reason you move me, _go_!" and
he strode to the door and flung it open with a passion that made every
one in the store straighten themselves, and look curiously toward the
two men.
White with rage, and with his hand upon his sword-hilt, Captain Hyde
stamped his way through the crowded store to the dusty street. Then it
struck him that he had not asked the name of the man to whom Katharine
was promised. He swore at himself for the omission. Whether he knew him
or not, he was determined to fight him. In the meantime, the most
practical revenge was to try and see Katherine before her father had the
opportunity to give her any orders regarding him. Just then he met Neil
Semple, and he stopped and asked him the time.
"It will be the half hour after four, Captain. I am going home; shall I
have your company, sir?"
"I have not much leisure to-night. Make a thousand regrets to Madam
Semple and my aunt for me."
Neil's calm, complacent gravity was unendurable. He turned from him
abruptly, and, muttering passionate exclamations, went to the river-bank
for a boat. Often he had seen Katherine between five and six o'clock at
the foot of the Van Heemskirk garden; for it was then possible for her
to slip away while madam was busy about her house, and Joanna and
Batavius talking over their own affairs. And this evening he felt that
the very intensity of his desire must surely bring her to their
trysting-place behind the lilac hedge.
Whether he was right or wrong, he did not consider; for he was not one
of those potent men who have themselves in their own power. Nor had it
ever entered his mind that "love's strength standeth in love's
sacrifice," or that the only love worthy of the name refuses to blend
with anything that is low or vindictive or clandestine. And, even if he
had not loved Katherine, he would now have been determined to marry her.
Never before in all his life had he found an object so engrossing. Pride
and revenge were added to love, as motives; but who will say that love
was purer or stronger or sweeter for them?
In the meantime Joris was suffering as only such deep natures can
suffer. There are domestic fatalities which the wisest and tenderest of
parents seem impotent to contend with. Joris had certainly been alarmed
by Semple's warning; but in forbidding his daughter to visit Mrs.
Gordon, and in permitting the suit of Neil Semple, he thought he had
assured her safety. Through all the past weeks, he had seen no shadow on
her face. The fear had died out, and the hope had been slowly growing;
so that Captain Hyde's proposal, and his positive assertion that
Katherine loved him, had fallen upon the father's heart with the force
of a blow, and the terror of a shock. And the sting of the sorrow was
this,--that his child had deceived him. Certainly she had not spoken
false words, but truth can be outraged by silence quite as cruelly as by
speech.
After Hyde's departure, he shut the door of his office, walked to the
window, and stood there some minutes, clasping and unclasping his large
hands, like a man full of grief and perplexity. Ere long he remembered
his friend Semple. This trouble concerned him also, for Captain Hyde was
in a manner his guest; and, if he were informed of the marriage arranged
between Katherine and Neil Semple, he would doubtless feel himself bound
in honour to retire. Elder Semple had opened his house to Colonel
Gordon, his wife and nephew. For months they had lived in comfort under
his roof, and been made heartily welcome to the best of all he
possessed. Joris put himself in Hyde's place; and he was certain, that,
under the same circumstances, he would feel it disgraceful to interfere
with the love-affairs of his host's son.
He found Semple with his hat in his hand, giving his last orders before
leaving business for the day; but when Joris said, "There is trouble,
and your advice I want," he returned with him to the back of the store,
where, through half-opened shutters, the sunshine and the river-breeze
stole into an atmosphere laden with the aromas of tea and coffee and
West Indian produce.
In a few short, strong sentences, Joris put the case before Semple. The
latter stroked his right knee thoughtfully, and listened. But his first
words were not very comforting: "I must say, that it is maistly your own
fault, Joris. You hae given Neil but a half welcome, and you should hae
made a' things plain and positive to Katherine. Such skimble-skamble,
yea and nay kind o' ways willna do wi' women. Why didna you say to her,
out and out, 'I hae promised you to Neil Semple, my lassie. He'll mak'
you the best o' husbands; you'll marry him at the New Year, and you'll
get gold and plenishing and a' things suitable'?"
"So young she is yet, Elder."
"She has been o'er auld for you, Joris. Young! My certie! When girls are
auld enough for a lover, they are a match for any gray head. I'm a
thankfu' man that I wasna put in charge o' any o' them. You and your
household will hae to keep your e'en weel open, or there will be a
wedding to which nane o' us will get an invite. But there is little
good in mair words. Hame is the place we are baith needed in. I shall
hae to speak my mind to Neil, and likewise to Colonel Gordon; and you
canna put off your duty to your daughter an hour longer. Dear me! To
think, Joris, o' a man being able to sit wi' the councillors o' the
nation, and yet no match for a lassie o' seventeen!"
There are men who can talk their troubles away: Joris was not one of
them. He was silent when in sorrow or perplexity; silent, and ever
looking around for something to _do_ in the matter. As they walked
homewards, the elder talked, and Joris pondered, not what was said, but
the thoughts and purposes that were slowly forming in his own mind. He
was later than usual, and the tea and the cakes had passed their prime
condition; but, when Lysbet saw the trouble in his eyes, she thought
them not worth mentioning. Joanna and Batavius were discussing their new
house then building on the East River bank, and they had forgotten all
else. But Katherine fretted about her father's delay, and it was at her
Joris first looked. The veil had now been taken from his eyes; and he
noticed her pretty dress, her restless glances at the clock, her
ill-concealed impatience at the slow movement of the evening meal.
When it was over, Joanna and Batavius went out to walk, and Madame Van
Heemskirk rose to put away her silver and china. "So warm as it is!"
said Katherine. "Into the garden I am going, mother."
"Well, then, there are currants to pull. The dish take with you."
Joris rose then, and laying his hand on Katherine's shoulder said,
"There is something to talk about. Sit down, Lysbet; the door shut
close, and listen to me."
It was impossible to mistake the stern purpose on her husband's face,
and Lysbet silently obeyed the order.
"Katherine, Katrijntje, _mijn kind_, this afternoon there comes to the
store the young man, Captain Hyde. To thy father he said many ill words.
To him thou shalt never speak again. Thy promise give to me."
She sat silent, with dropped eyes, and cheeks as red as the pomegranate
flower at her breast.
"_Mijn kind_, speak to me."
"_O wee, O wee!_"
"_Mijn kind_, speak to me."
Weeping bitterly, she rose and went to her mother, and laid her head
upon Lysbet's shoulder.
"Look now, Joris. One must know the 'why' and the 'wherefore.' What mean
you? _Whish, mijn kindje_!"
"This I mean, Lysbet. No more meetings with the Englishman will I have.
No love secrets will I bear. Danger is with them; yes, and sin too."
"Joris, if he has spoken to you, then where is the secret?"
"Too late he spoke. When worked was his own selfish way, to tell me of
his triumph he comes. It is a shameful wrong. Forgive it? No, I will
not,--never!"
No one answered him; only Katherine's low weeping broke the silence,
and for a few moments Joris paced the room sorrowful and amazed. Then he
looked at Lysbet, and she rose and gave her place to him. He put his
arms around his darling, and kissed her fondly.
[Illustration: "Listen to me, thy father!"]
"_Mijn kindje_, listen to me thy father. It is for thy happy life here,
it is for thy eternal life, I speak to thee. This man for whom thou art
now weeping is not good for thee. He is not of thy faith, he is a
Lutheran; not of thy people, he is an Englishman; not of thy station, he
talks of his nobility; a gambler also, a man of fashion, of loose talk,
of principles still more loose. If with the hawk a singing-bird might
mate happily, then this English soldier thou might safely marry. _Mijn
beste kindje_, do I love thee?"
"My father!"
"Do I love thee?"
"Yes, yes."
"Dost thou, then, love me?"
She put her arms round his neck, and laid her cheek against his, and
kissed him many times.
"Wilt thou go away and leave me, and leave thy mother, in our old age?
My heart thou would break. My gray hairs to the grave would go in
sorrow. Katrijntje, my dear, dear child, what for me, and for thy
mother, wilt thou do?"
"Thy wish--if I can."
Then he told her of the provision made for her future. He reminded her
of Neil's long affection, and of her satisfaction with it until Hyde had
wooed her from her love and her duty. And, remembering the elder's
reproach on his want of explicitness, he added, "To-morrow, about thy
own house, I will take the first step. Near my house it shall be; and
when I walk in my garden, in thy garden I will see thee, and only a
little fence shall be between us. And at the feast of St. Nicholas thou
shalt be married; for then thy sisters will be here, thy sisters Anna
and Cornelia. And money, plenty of money, I will give thee; and all that
is proper thy mother and thee shall buy. But no more, no more at all,
shalt thou see or speak to that bad man who has so beguiled thee."
At this remark Katherine sadly shook her head; and Lysbet's face so
plainly expressed caution, that Joris somewhat modified his last order,
"That is, little one, no more until the feast of St. Nicholas. Then thou
wilt be married and then it is good, if it is safe, to forgive all
wrongs, and to begin again with all the world in peace and good living.
Wilt thou these things promise me? me and thy mother?"
"Richard I must see once more. That is what I ask."
"_Richard!_ So far is it?"
She did not answer; and Joris rose, and looked at the girl's mother
inquiringly. Her face expressed assent; and he said reluctantly, "Well,
then, I will as easy make it as I can. Once more, and for one hour, thou
may see him. But I lay it on thee to tell him the truth, for this and
for all other time."
"_Now_ may I go? He is a-nigh. His boat I hear at the landing;" and she
stood up, intent, listening, with her fair head lifted, and her wet eyes
fixed on the distance.
"Well, be it so. Go."
With the words she slipped from the room; and Joris called Baltus to
bring him some hot coals, and began to fill his pipe. As he did so, he
watched Lysbet with some anxiety. She had offered him no sympathy, she
evinced no disposition to continue the conversation; and, though she
kept her face from him, he understood that all her movements expressed a
rebellious temper. In and out of the room she passed, very busy about
her own affairs, and apparently indifferent to his anxiety and sorrow.
At first Joris felt some natural anger at her attitude; but, as the
Virginia calmed and soothed him, he remembered that he had told her
nothing of his interview with Hyde, and that she might be feeling and
reasoning from a different standpoint from himself. Then the sweetness
of his nature was at once in the ascendant, and he said, "Lysbet, come
then, and talk with me about the child."
She turned the keys in her press slowly, and stood by it with them in
her hand. "What has been told thee, Joris, to-day? And who has spoken?
Tongues evil and envious, I am sure of that."
"Thou art wrong. The young man to me spoke himself. He said, 'I love
your daughter. I want to marry her.'"
"Well, then, he did no wrong. And as for Katrijntje, it is in nature
that a young girl should want a lover. It is in nature she should choose
the one she likes best. That is what I say."
"That is what I say, Lysbet. It is in nature, also, that we want too
much food and wine, too much sleep, too much pleasure, too little work.
It is in nature that our own way we want. It is in nature that the good
we hate, and the sin we love. My Lysbet, to us God gives his own good
grace, that the things that are in nature we might put below the reason
and the will."
"So hard that is, Joris."
"No, it is not; so far thou hast done the right way. When Katherine was
a babe, it was in nature that with the fire she wanted to make play. But
thou said, 'There is danger, my precious one;' and in thy arms thou
carried her out of the temptation. When older she grew, it was in nature
she said, 'I like not the school, and my Heidelberg is hard, and I
cannot learn it.' But thou answered, 'For thy good is the school, and go
thou every day; and for thy salvation is thy catechism, and I will see
that thou learn it well.' Now, then, it is in nature the child should
want this handsome stranger; but with me thou wilt certainly say, 'He is
not fit for thy happiness; he has not the true faith, he gambles, he
fights duels, he is a waster, he lives badly, he will take thee far from
thy own people and thy own home.'"
"Can the man help that he was born an Englishman and a Lutheran?"
"They have their own women. Look now, from the beginning it has been
like to like. Thou may see in the Holy Scriptures that, after Esau
married the Hittite woman, he sold his birthright, and became a wanderer
and a vagabond. And it is said that it was a 'grief of mind unto Isaac
and Rebekah.' I am sorry this day for Isaac and Rebekah. The heart of
the father is the same always."
"And the heart of the mother, also, Joris." She drew close to him, and
laid her arm across his broad shoulders; and he took his pipe from his
lips and turned his face to her. "Kind and wise art thou, my husband;
and whatever is thy wish, that is my wish too."
"A good woman thou art. And what pleasure would it be to thee if
Katherine was a countess, and went to the court, and bowed down to the
king and the queen? Thou would not see it; and, if thou spoke of it, thy
neighbours they would hate thee, and mock thee behind thy back, and say,
'How proud is Lysbet Van Heemskirk of her noble son-in-law that comes
never once to see her!' And dost thou believe he is an earl? Not I."
"That is where the mother's love is best, Joris. What my neighbours said
would be little care to me, if my Katherine was well and was happy. With
her sorrow would I buy my own pleasure? No; I would not so selfish be."
"Would I, Lysbet? Right am I, and I know I am right. And I think that
Neil Semple will be a very great person. Already, as a man of affairs,
he is much spoken of. He is handsome and of good morality. The elders
in the kirk look to such young men as Neil to fill their places when
they are no more in them. On the judge's bench he will sit down yet."
"A good young man he may be, but he is a very bad lover; that is the
truth. If a little less wise he could only be! A young girl likes some
foolish talk. It is what women understand. Little fond words, very
strong they are! Thou thyself said them to me."
"That is right. To Neil I will talk a little. A man must seek a good
wife with more heart than he seeks gold. Yes, yes; her price above
rubies is."
At the very moment Joris made this remark, the elder was speaking for
him. When he arrived at home, he found that his wife was out making
calls with Mrs. Gordon, so he had not the relief of a marital
conversation. He took his solitary tea, and fell into a nap, from which
he awoke in a querulous, uneasy temper. Neil was walking about the
terrace, and he joined him.
[Illustration: He took his solitary tea]
"You are stepping in a vera majestic way, Neil; what's in your thoughts,
I wonder?"
"I have a speech to make to-morrow, sir. My thoughts were on the law,
which has a certain majesty of its own."
"You'd better be thinking o' a speech you ought to make to-night, if you
care at a' aboot saving yoursel' wi' Katherine Van Heemskirk; and ma
certie it will be an extraordinar' case that is worth mair, even in the
way o' siller, than she is."
The elder was not in the habit of making unmeaning speeches, and Neil
was instantly alarmed. In his own way, he loved Katherine with all his
soul. "Yes," continued the old man, "you hae a rival, sir. Captain Hyde
asked Van Heemskirk for his daughter this afternoon, and an earldom in
prospect isna a poor bait."
"What a black scoundrel he must be!--to use your hospitality to steal
from your son the woman he loves."
"Tak' your time, Neil, and you won't lose your judgment. How was he to
ken that Katherine was your sweetheart? You made little o' the lassie,
vera little, I may say. Lawyer-like you may be, but nane could call you
lover-like. And while he and his are my guests, and in my house, I'll no
hae you fighting him. Tak' a word o' advice now,--I'll gie it without a
fee,--you are fond enough to plead for others, go and plead an hour for
yoursel'. Certie! When I was your age, I was aye noted for my persuading
way. Your father, sir, never left a spare corner for a rival. And I can
tell you this: a woman isna to be counted your ain, until you hae her
inside a wedding-ring."
"What did the councillor say?"
"To tell the truth, he said 'no,' a vera plain 'no,' too. You ken Van
Heemskirk's 'no' isn't a shilly-shallying kind o' a negative; but for a'
that, if I hae any skill in judging men, Richard Hyde isna one o' the
kind that tak's 'no' from either man or woman."
Neil was intensely angry, and his dark eyes glowed beneath their
dropped lids with a passionate hate. But he left his father with an
assumed coldness and calmness which made him mutter as he watched Neil
down the road, "I needna hae fashed mysel' to warn him against fighting.
He's a prudent lad. It's no right to fight, and it would be a matter for
a kirk session likewise; but _Bruce and Wallace_! was there ever a
Semple, before Neil, that keepit his hand off his weapon when his love
or his right was touched? And there's his mother out the night, of all
the nights in the year, and me wanting a word o' advice sae bad; not
that Janet has o'er much good sense, but whiles she can make an obsarve
that sets my ain wisdom in a right line o' thought. I wish to patience
she'd bide at home. She never kens when I may be needing her. And, now I
came to think o' things, it will be the warst o' all bad hours for Neil
to seek Katherine the night. She'll be fretting, and the mother pouting,
and the councillor in ane o' his particular Dutch touch-me-not tempers.
I do hope the lad will hae the uncommon sense to let folks cool, and
come to theirsel's a wee."
For the elder, judging his son by the impetuosity of his own youthful
temper, expected him to go directly to Van Heemskirk's house. But there
were qualities in Neil which his father forgot to take into
consideration, and their influence was to suggest to the young man how
inappropriate a visit to Katherine would be at that time. Indeed, he did
not much desire it. He was very angry with Katherine. He was sure that
she understood his entire devotion to her. He could not see any
necessity to set it forth as particularly as a legal contract, in
certain set phrases and with conventional ceremonies.
[Illustration: On the steps of the houses]
But his father's sarcastic advice annoyed him, and he wanted time to
fully consider his ways. He was no physical coward; he was a fine
swordsman, and he felt that it would be a real joy to stand with a drawn
rapier between himself and his rival. But what if revenge cost him too
much? What if he slew Hyde, and had to leave his love and his home, and
his fine business prospects? To win Katherine and to marry her, in the
face of the man whom he felt that he detested, would not that be the
best of all "satisfactions"?
He walked about the streets, discussing these points with himself, till
the shops all closed, and on the stoops of the houses in Maiden Lane and
Liberty Street there were merry parties of gossiping belles and beaux.
Then he returned to Broadway. Half a dozen gentlemen were standing
before the King's Arms Tavern, discussing some governmental statement in
the "Weekly Mercury;" but though they asked him to stop, and enlighten
them on some legal point, he excused himself for that night, and went
toward Van Heemskirk's. He had suddenly resolved upon a visit. Why
should he put off until the morrow what he might begin that night?
Still debating with himself, he came to a narrow road which ran to the
river, along the southern side of Van Heemskirk's house. It was only a
trodden path used by fishermen, and made by usage through the unenclosed
ground. But coming swiftly up it, as if to detain him, was Captain Hyde.
The two men looked at each other defiantly; and Neil said with a cold,
meaning emphasis,--
"At your service, sir."
"Mr. Semple, at your service,"--and touching his sword,--"to the very
hilt, sir."
"Sir, yours to the same extremity."
"As for the cause, Mr. Semple, here it is;" and he pushed aside his
embroidered coat in order to exhibit to Neil the bow of orange ribbon
beneath it.
"I will die it crimson in your blood," said Neil, passionately.
"In the meantime, I have the felicity of wearing it;" and with an
offensively deep salute, he terminated the interview.
[Illustration: Tail-piece]
[Illustration: Chapter heading]