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 God 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 passion 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 passion; 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.




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