It was during this time of excitement that Katherine said one morning,

at breakfast, "Bram wait one minute for me. I am going to do an errand

or two for my mother.

"It is a bad time, Katherine, you have chosen," said Batavius. "Full of

men are the streets, excited men too, and of swaggering British

soldiers, whom it would be a great pleasure to tie up in a halter. The

British I hate,--bullying curs, everyone of them!"

"Well, I know that you hate the British, Batavius. You say so every

hour."

"Katherine!"

"That is so, Joanna."

Madam looked annoyed. Joris rose, and said, "Come then, Katherine, thou

shalt go with me and with Bram both. Batavius need not then fear for

thee."

His voice was so tender that Katherine felt an unusual happiness and

exultation; and she was also young enough to be glad to see the familiar

streets again, and to feel the pulse of their vivid life make her heart

beat quicker.

At Kip's store, Bram left her. She had felt so free and unremarked, that

she said, "Wait not for me, Bram. By myself I will go home. Or perhaps I

might call upon Miriam Cohen. What dost thou think?" And Bram's large,

handsome face flushed like a girl's with pleasure, as he answered, "That

I would like, and there thou could rest until the dinner-hour. As I go

home, I could call for thee."

So, after selecting the goods her mother needed at Kip's, Katherine was

going up Pearl Street, when she heard herself called in a familiar and

urgent voice. At the same moment a door was flung open; and Mrs. Gordon,

running down the few steps, put her hand upon the girl's shoulder.

"Oh, my dear, this is a piece of good fortune past belief! Come into my

lodgings. Oh, indeed you shall! I will have no excuse. Surely you owe

Dick and me some reward after the pangs we have suffered for you."

She was leading Katherine into the house as she spoke; and Katherine had

not the will, and therefore not the power, to oppose her. She placed the

girl by her side on the sofa; she took her hands, and, with a genuine

grief and love, told her all that "poor Dick" had suffered and was still

suffering for her sake.

"It was the most unprovoked challenge, my dear; and Neil Semple behaved

like a savage, I assure you. When Dick was bleeding from half a dozen

wounds, a gentleman would have been satisfied, and accepted the

mediation of the seconds; but Neil, in his blind passion, broke the code

to pieces. A man who can do nothing but be in a rage is a ridiculous and

offensive animal. Have you seen him since his recovery? For I hear that

he has crawled out of his bed again."




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