"No, I will not, Neil. I will not take your hands. Often I have told you

that."

"Just for to-night, forgive me, Katherine."

"I am sorry that all must end so; I cannot dance any more with you;"

and then she affected to hear her mother calling, and left him standing

among the jocund crowd, hopeless and distraught with grief. He was not

able to recover himself, and the noise and laughter distracted and made

him angry. He had expected so much from this occasion, from its

influence and associations; and it had been altogether a disappointment.

Mrs. Gordon's presence troubled him, and he was not free from jealousy

regarding the young dominie. He had received a call from a church in

Haarlem; and the Consistory had requested him to become a member of the

Coetus, and accept it. Joris had interested himself much in his favour;

Katherine listened with evident pleasure to his conversation. The fire

of jealousy burns with very little fuel; and Neil went away from

Joanna's wedding-feast hating very cordially the young and handsome

Dominie Lambertus Van Linden.

The elder noticed every thing, and he was angry at this new turn in

affairs. He felt as if Joris had purposely brought the dominie into his

house to further embarrass Neil; and he said to his wife after their

return home, "Janet, our son Neil has lost the game for Katherine Van

Heemskirk. I dinna care a bodle for it now. A man that gets the woman he

wants vera seldom gets any other gude thing."

"Elder!"

"Ah, weel, there's excepts! I hae mind o' them. But Neil won't be long

daunted. I looked in on him as I cam' upstairs. He was sitting wi' a law

treatise, trying to read his trouble awa'. He's a brave soul. He'll hae

honours and charges in plenty; and there's vera few women that are

worth a gude office--if you hae to choose atween them."

"You go back on your ain words, Elder. Tak' a sleep to yoursel'. Your

pillow may gie you wisdom."

And, while this conversation was taking place, they heard the pleasant

voices of Van Heemskirk's departing guests, as, with snatches of song

and merry laughter, they convoyed Batavius and his bride to their own

home. And, when they got there, Batavius lifted up his lantern and

showed them the motto he had chosen for its lintel; and it passed from

lip to lip, till it was lifted altogether, and the young couple crossed

their threshold to his ringing good-will,-"Poverty--always a day's sail behind us!"




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