"I can do these things also, father. The lady loves me, and will be

unhappy not to see me."

"Then, let her come here and see thee. That will be the proper thing.

Why not? She is not better than thou art. Once thy mother has called on

her; thou and Joanna, a few times too often. Now, then, let her call on

thee. Always honour thyself, as well as others. That is the Dutch way;

that is the right way. Mind what I tell thee."

His voice had gradually grown sterner; and he gently withdrew his hand

from her clasp, and rose as a man in a hurry, and pressed with affairs:

"Come, Bram, there is need now of some haste. The 'Sea Hound' has her

cargo, and should sail at the noon-tide; and, as for the 'Crowned

Bears,' thou knowest there is much to be said and done. I hear she left

most of her cargo at Perth Amboy. Well, well, I have told Jerome Brakel

what I think of that. It is his own affair."

Thus talking, he left the room; and Lysbet instantly began to order the

wants of the house with the same air of settled preoccupation. "Joanna,"

she said, "the linen web in the loom, go and see how it is getting on;

and the fine napkins must be sent to the lawn for the bleaching, and

to-day the chambers must be aired and swept. The best parlour Katherine

will attend to."

Katherine still sat at the table; her eyes were cast down, and she was

arranging--without a consciousness of doing so--her bread-crumbs upon

her Delft plate. The directions roused her from her revery, and she

comprehended in a moment how decisive her father's orders were intended

to be. Yet in this matter she was so deeply interested that she

instinctively made an appeal against them.

"Mother, my mother, shall I not go once more to see Madam Gordon? So

kind she has been to me! She will say I am ungrateful, that I am rude,

and know not good manners. And I left there the cushion I am making, and

the worsteds. I may go at once, and bring them home? Yes, mother, I may

go at once. A young girl does not like to be thought ungrateful and

rude."

"More than that, Katherine; a young girl should not like to disobey a

good father. You make me feel astonished and sorry. Here is the key of

the best parlour; go now, and wash carefully the fine china-ware. As to

the rose-leaves in the big jars, you must not let a drop of water touch

them."




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