Katherine looked thoughtfully around. There was a small Chinese cabinet

on a table: she went to it, and took from a drawer a bow of orange

ribbon. Holding it doubtfully in her hand, she said, "My St. Nicholas

ribbon."

"La, miss, I thought you were a Calvinist! What are you talking of the

saints for?"

"St. Nicholas is our saint, our own saint; and on his day we wear

orange. Yes, even my father then, on his silk cap, puts an orange bow.

Orange is the Dutch colour, you know, madam."

"Indeed, child, I do not know; but, if so, then it is the best colour

to send to your true love."

"For the Dutch, orange always. On the great days of the kirk, my father

puts blue with it. Blue is the colour of the Dutch Calvinists."

"Make me thankful to learn so much. Then when Councillor Van Heemskirk

wears his blue and orange, he says to the world, 'I am a Dutchman and a

Calvinist'?"

"That is the truth. For the Vaderland the Moeder-Kerk he wears their

colours. The English, too, they will have their own colour!"

"La, my dear, England claims every colour! But, indeed, even an English

officer may now wear an orange favour; for I remember well when our

Princess Anne married the young Prince of Orange. Oh, I assure you the

House of Nassau is close kin to the House of Hanover! And when English

princesses marry Dutch princes, then surely English officers may marry

Dutch maidens. Your bow of orange ribbon is a very proper love-knot."

"Indeed, madam, I never"-"There, there! I can really wait no longer. Some one is already in a

fever of impatience. 'Tis a quaintly pretty room; I am happy to have seen

its curious treasures. Good-by again, child; my service once more to your

mother and sister;" and so, with many compliments, she passed chatting and

laughing out of the house.

Katherine closed the best parlour, and lingered a moment in the act. She

felt that she had permitted Mrs. Gordon to make an appointment for her

lover, and a guilty sense of disobedience made bitter the joy of

expectation. For absolute truthfulness is the foundation of the Dutch

character; and an act of deception was not only a sin according to

Katherine's nature, but one in direct antagonism to it. As she turned

away from the closed parlour, she felt quite inclined to confide

everything to her sister Joanna; but Joanna, who had to finish the

cleaning of the silver, was not in that kind of a temper which invites

confidence; and indeed, Katherine, looking into her calm, preoccupied

face, felt her manner to be a reproof and a restraint.




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