The Bow of Orange Ribbon Part 10

"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 Hitt.i.te 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 n.o.ble 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 la.s.sie, 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 s.h.i.+lly-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 pa.s.sionate hate. But he left his father with an a.s.sumed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, pa.s.sionately.

"In the meantime, I have the felicity of wearing it;" and with an offensively deep salute, he terminated the interview.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tail-piece]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chapter heading]

VI.

"_Love and a crown no rivals.h.i.+p can bear.

Love, love! Thou sternly dost thy power maintain, And wilt not bear a rival in thy reign_."

Neil's first emotion was not so much one of anger as of exultation. The civilization of the Semples was scarce a century old; and behind them were generations of fierce men, whose hands had been on their dirks for a word or a look. "I shall have him at my sword's point;" that was what he kept saying to himself as he turned from Hyde to Van Heemskirk's house. The front-door stood open; and he walked through it to the back-stoop, where Joris was smoking.

Katherine sat upon the steps of the stoop. Her head was in her hand, her eyes red with weeping, her whole att.i.tude one of desponding sorrow. But, at this hour, Neil was indifferent to adverse circ.u.mstances. He was moving in that exultation of spirit which may be simulated by the first rapture of good wine, but which is only genuine when the soul takes entire possession of the man, and makes him for some rare, short interval lord of himself, and contemptuous of all fears and doubts and difficulties. He never noticed that Joris was less kind than usual; but touching Katherine, to arouse her attention, said, "Come with me down the garden, my love."

She looked at him wonderingly. His words and manner were strange and potent; and, although she had just been a.s.suring herself that she would resist his advances on every occasion, she rose at his request and gave him her hand.

Then the tender thoughts which had lain so deep in his heart flew to his lips, and he wooed her with a fervour and n.o.bility as astonis.h.i.+ng to himself as to Katherine. He reminded her of all the sweet intercourse of their happy lives, and of the fidelity with which he had loved her.

"When I was a lad ten years old, and saw you first in your mother's arms, I called you then 'my little wife.' Oh, my Katherine, my sweet Katherine! Who is there that can take you from me?"

"Neil, like a brother to me you have been. Like a dear brother, I love you. But your wife to be! That is not the same. Ask me not that."

"Only that can satisfy me, Katherine. Do you think I will ever give you up? Not while I live."

"No one will I marry. With my father and my mother I will stay."

"Yes, till you learn to love me as I love you, with the whole soul." He drew her close to his side, and bent tenderly to her face.