The Bow of Orange Ribbon Part 24

When Joris spoke in this tone on any subject, no one wished to continue it: and it was not until her father had left the house, that Joanna asked her mother particularly about Katherine's marriage. "Was she sure of it? Had they proofs? Would it be legal? More than a dozen people stopped me as I came over here," she said, "and asked me about everything."

"I know not how more than a dozen people knew of anything, Joanna. But many ill-natured words will be spoken, doubtless. Even Janet Semple came here yesterday, thinking over Katherine to exult a little. But Katherine is a great deal beyond her to-day. And perhaps a countess she may yet be. That is what her husband said to thy father."

"I knew not that he spoke to my father about Katherine."

"Thou knows not all things. Before thou wert married to Batavius, before Neil Semple nearly murdered him, he asked of thy father her hand. Thou wast born on thy wedding day, I think. All things that happened before it have from thy memory pa.s.sed away."

"Well, I am a good wife, I know that. That also is what Batavius says.

Just before I got to the gate, I met Madam Semple and Gertrude Van Gaasbeeck; they had been shopping together."

"Did they speak of Katherine?"

"Indeed they did."

"Or did you speak first, Joanna? It is an evil bird that pulls to pieces its own nest."

"O mother, scolded I cannot be for Katherine's folly! My Batavius always said, 'The favourite is Katherine.' Always he thought that of me too much was expected. And Madam Semple said--and always she liked Katherine--that very badly had she behaved for a whole year, and that the end was what everybody had looked for. It is on me very hard,--I who have always been modest, and taken care of my good name. n.o.body in the whole city will have one kind word to say for Katherine. You will see that it is so, mother."

"You will see something very different, Joanna. Many will praise Katherine, for she to herself has done well. And, when back she comes, at the governor's she will visit, and with all the great ladies; and not one among them will be so lovely as Katherine Hyde."

And, if Joanna had been in Madam Semple's parlour a few hours later, she would have had a most decided ill.u.s.tration of Lysbet's faith in the popular verdict. Madam was sitting at her tea-table talking to the elder, who had brought home with him the full supplement to Joanna's story. Both were really sorry for their old friends, although there is something in the best kind of human nature that indorses the punishment of those things in which old friends differ from us.

Neil had heard nothing. He had been shut up in his office all day over an important suit; and, when he took the street again, he was weary, and far from being inclined to join any acquaintances in conversation. In fact, the absorbing topic was one which no one cared to introduce in Neil's presence; and he himself was too full of professional matters to notice that he attracted more than usual attention from the young men standing around the store-doors, and the officers lounging in front of the 'King's Arms' tavern.

He was irritable, too, with exhaustion, though he was doing his best to keep himself in control and when madam his mother said pointedly, "I'm fearing, Neil, that the bad news has made you ill; you arena at a' like yoursel'," he asked without much interest, "What bad news?"

"The news anent Katherine Van Heemskirk."

He had supposed it was some political disappointment, and at Katherine's name his pale face grew suddenly crimson.

"What of her?" he asked.

"Didna you hear? She ran awa' last night wi' Captain Hyde; stole awa'

wi' him on 'The Dauntless.'"

"She would have the right to go with him, I have no doubt," said Neil with guarded calmness.

"Do you really think she was his wife?"

"If she went with him, _I am sure she was_." He dropped the words with an emphatic precision, and looked with gloomy eyes out of the window; gloomy, but steadfast, as if he were trying to face a future in which there was no hope. His mother did not observe him. She went on prattling as she filled the elder's cup, "If there had been any wedding worth the name o' the thing, we would hae been bidden to it. I dinna believe she is married."

"Are you sure that she sailed with Captain Hyde in 'The Dauntless,' or is it a pack of women's tales?"

"The news cam' wi' your fayther the elder," answered madam, much offended. "You can mak' your inquiries there if you think he's mair reliable than I am."

Neil looked at his father, and the elder said quietly, "I wouldna be positive anent any woman; the bad are whiles good, and the good are whiles bad. But there is nae doubt that Katherine has gone with Hyde; and I heard that the military at the 'King's Arms' have been drinking b.u.mpers to Captain Hyde and his bride; and I know that Mrs. Gordon has said they were married lang syne, when Hyde couldna raise himsel' or put a foot to the ground. But Joanna told your mother _she_ had neither seen nor heard tell o' book, ring, or minister; and, as I say, for mysel'

I'll no venture a positive opinion, but I _think_ the la.s.sie is married to the man she's off an' awa' wi'."

"But if she isna?" persisted madam.

In a moment Neil let slip the rein in which he had been holding himself, and in a slow, intense voice answered, "I shall make it my business to find out. If Katherine is married, G.o.d bless her! If she is not, I will follow Hyde though it were around the world until I cleave his coward's heart in two." His pa.s.sion grew stronger with its utterance. He pushed away his chair, and put down his cup so indifferently that it missed the table and fell with a crash to the floor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Oh, my cheeny, my cheeny!"]

"Oh, my cheeny, my cheeny! Oh, my bonnie cups that I hae used for forty years, and no' a piece broken afore!"

"Ah, weel, Janet," said the elder, "you shouldna badger an angry man when he's drinking from your best cups."

"I canna mend nor match it in the whole Province, Elder. Oh, my bonnie cup."

"I was thinking, Janet, o' Katherine's good name. If it is gane, it is neither to mend nor to match in the whole wide world. I'll awa' and see Joris and Lysbet. And put every cross thought where you'll never find them again, Janet; an tak' your good-will in your hands, and come wi'

me. Lysbet will want to see you."

"Not her, indeed! I can tell you, Elder, that Lysbet was vera cool and queer wi' me yesterday."

"Come, Janet, dinna keep your good-nature in remnants. Let's hae enough to make a cloak big enough to cover a' bygone faults."

"I think, then, I ought to stay wi' Neil."

"Neil doesna want anybody near him. Leave him alane. Neil's a' right.

Forty years syne I would hae broke my mother's cheeny, and drawn steel as quick as Neil did, if I heard a word against bonnie Janet Gordon."

And the old man made his wife a bow; and madam blushed with pleasure, and went upstairs to put on her bonnet and India shawl.

"Woman, woman," meditated the smiling elder; "she is never too angry to be won wi' a mouthful o' sweet words, special if you add a bow or a kiss to them. My certie! when a husband can get his ain way at sic a sma'

price, it's just wonderfu' he doesna buy it in perpetuity."

Joris was somewhat comforted by his old friend's sympathy; for the elder, in the hour of trial, knew how to be magnanimous. But the father's wound lay deeper than human love could reach. He was suffering from what all suffer who are wounded in their affections; for alas, alas, how poorly do we love even those whom we love most! We are not only bruised by the limitations of their love for us, but also by the limitations of our own love for them. And those who know what it is to be strong enough to wrestle, and yet not strong enough to overcome, will understand how the grief, the anger, the jealousy, the resentment, from which he suffered, amazed Joris; he had not realized before the depth and strength of his feelings.

He tried to put the memory of Katherine away, but he could not accomplish a miracle. The girl's face was ever before him. He felt her caressing fingers linked in his own; and, as he walked in his house and his garden, her small feet pattered beside him. For as there are in creation invisible bonds that do not break like mortal bonds, so also there are correspondences subsisting between souls, despite the separation of distance.

"I would forget Katherine if I could," he said to Dominie Van Linden; and the good man, bravely putting aside his private grief, took the hands of Joris in his own, and bending toward him, answered, "That would be a great pity. Why forget? Trust, rather, that out of sorrow G.o.d will bring to you joy."

"Not natural is that, Dominie. How can it be? I do not understand how it can be."

"You do not understand! Well, then, _och mijn jongen_, what matters comprehension, if you have faith? Trust, now, that it is well with the child."

But Joris believed it was ill with her; and he blamed not only himself, but every one in connection with Katherine, for results which he was certain might have been foreseen and prevented. Did he not foresee them?

Had he not spoken plainly enough to Hyde and to Lysbet and to the child herself? He should have seen her to Albany, to her sister Cornelia. For he believed now that Lysbet had not cordially disapproved of Hyde; and as for Joanna, she had been far too much occupied with Batavius and her own marriage to care for any other thing. And one of his great fears was that Katherine also would forget her father and mother and home, and become a willing alien from her own people.

He was so wrapped up in his grief, that he did not notice that Bram was suffering also. Bram got the brunt of the world's wonderings and inquiries. People who did not like to ask Joris questions, felt no such delicacy with Bram. And Bram not only tenderly loved his sister: he hated with the unreasoning pa.s.sion of youth the entire English soldiery.

He made no exception now. They were the visible marks of a subjection which he was sworn, heart and soul, to oppose. It humiliated him among his fellows, that his sister should have fled with one of them. It gave those who envied and disliked him an opportunity of inflicting covert and cruel wounds. Joris could, in some degree, control himself; he could speak of the marriage with regret, but without pa.s.sion; he had even alluded, in some cases, to Hyde's family and expectations. The majority believed that he was secretly a little proud of the alliance. But Bram was aflame with indignation; first, if the marriage were at all doubted; second, if it were supposed to be a satisfactory one to any member of the Van Heemskirk family.

As to the doubters, they were completely silenced when the next issue of the "New York Gazette" appeared; for among its most conspicuous advertis.e.m.e.nts was the following:

Married, Oct. 19, 1765, by the Rev. Mr. Somers, chaplain to his Excellency the Governor, Richard Drake Hyde, of Hyde Manor, Norfolk, son of the late Richard Drake Hyde, and brother of William Drake Hyde, Earl of Dorset and Hyde, to Katherine, the youngest daughter of Joris and Lysbet Van Heemskirk, of the city and province of New York.

_Witnesses_: NIGEL GORDON, H.M. Nineteenth Light Cavalry.

GEORGE EARLE, H.M. Nineteenth Light Cavalry.