Part 17 (2/2)

”Alida!” cried the burgher, for the fourth and last time, ”come forth, child; I forgive thee thy idle sport, and all I have said of disinheritance was but a jest. Come forth, my sister's daughter, and kiss thy old uncle!”

The Patroon turned aside, as he heard a man so Known for his worldliness yielding to the power of nature; and the lord of a hundred thousand acres forgot his own disappointment, in the force of sympathy.

”Let us retire,” he said, gently urging the burgher to quit the place. ”A little reflection will enable us to deride what should be done.”

The Alderman complied. Before quitting the place, however, its closets and drawers were examined; and the search left no further doubts of the step which the young heiress had taken. Her clothes, books, utensils for drawing, and even the lighter instruments of music, had disappeared.

Chapter XIII.

”--Ay, that way goes the game, Now I perceive that she hath made compare Between our statures--”

Midsummer-Night's Dream.

The tide of existence floats downward, and with it go, in their greatest strength, all those affections that unite families and kindred. We learn to know our parents in the fullness of their reason, and commonly in the perfection of their bodily strength. Reverence and respect both mingle with our love; but the affection, with which we watch the helplessness of infancy, the interest with which we see the ingenuous and young profiting by our care, the pride of improvement, and the magic of hope, create an intensity of sympathy in their favor, that almost equals the ident.i.ty of self-love. There is a mysterious and double existence, in the tie that binds the parent to the child. With a volition and pa.s.sions of its own, the latter has power to plant a sting in the bosom of the former, that shall wound as acutely as the errors which arise from mistakes, almost from crimes, of its own. But, when the misconduct of the descendant can be traced to neglect, or to a vicious instruction, then, indeed, even the pang of a wounded conscience may be added to the sufferings of those who have gone before. Such, in some measure, was the nature of the pain that Alderman Van Beverout was condemned to feel, when at leisure to reflect on the ill-judged measure that had been taken by la belle Barberie.

”She was a pleasant and coaxing minx, Patroon,” said the burgher, pacing the room they occupied, with a quick and heavy step, and speaking unconsciously of his niece, as of one already beyond the interests of life; ”and as wilful and headstrong as an unbroken colt.--Thou hard-riding imp! I shall never find a match for the poor disconsolate survivor.--But the girl had a thousand agreeable and delightful ways with her, that made her the delight of my old days. She has not done wisely, to desert the friend and guardian of her youth, ay, even of her childhood, in order to seek protection from strangers. This is an unhappy world, Mr. Van Staats!

All our calculations come to nought; and it is in the power of fortune to reverse the most reasonable and wisest of our expectations. A gale of wind drives the richly-freighted s.h.i.+p to the bottom; a sudden fall in the market robs us of our gold, as the November wind strips the oak of its leaves; and bankruptcies and decayed credit often afflict the days of the oldest houses, as disease saps the strength of the body:--Alida! Alida!

thou hast wounded one that never harmed thee, and rendered my age miserable!”

”It is vain to contend with the inclinations,” returned the proprietor of the manor, sighing in a manner that did no discredit to the sincerity of his remark. ”I could have been happy to have placed your niece in the situation that my respected mother filled with so much dignity and credit, but it is now too late----”

”We don't know that;--we don't know that;” interrupted the Alderman, who still clung to the hope of effecting the first great wish of his heart, with the pertinacity with which he would have clung to the terms of any other fortunate bargain. ”We should never despair, Mr. Van Staats, as long as the transaction is left open.”

”The manner in which Mademoiselle Barberie has expressed her preference, is so very decided, that I see no hope of completing the arrangement.”

”Mere coquetry, Sir, mere coquetry! The girl has disappeared in order to enhance the value of her future submission. One should never regard a treaty at an end, so long as reasonable hopes remain that it may be productive to the parties.”

”I fear, Sir, there is more of the coquette in this step of the young lady, than a gentleman can overlook,” returned the Patroon a little dryly, and with far more point than he was accustomed to use. ”If the commander of Her Majesty's cruiser be not a happy man, he will not have occasion to reproach his mistress with disdain!”

”I am not certain, Mr. Van Staats, that in the actual situation of our stipulations, I ought to overlook an innuendo that seems to reflect on the discretion of my ward. Captain Ludlow----well, sirrah! what is the meaning of this impertinence?”

”He'm waiting to see Ma.s.ser,” returned the gaping Erasmus, who stood with the door in his hand, admiring the secret intelligence of his master, who had so readily antic.i.p.ated his errand.

”Who is waiting?--What does the simpleton mean?”

”I mean 'a gentle'um Ma.s.ser say.”

”The fortunate man is here to remind us of his success,” haughtily observed Van Staats of Kinderhook. ”There can be no necessity of my presence at an interview between Alderman Van Beverout and his nephew.”

The justly-mortified Patroon bowed ceremoniously to the equally disappointed burgher, and left the room the moment he had done speaking.

The negro took his retreat as a favorable symptom for one who was generally known to be his rival; and he hastened to inform the young captain, that the coast was clear.

The meeting, that instantly succeeded, was sufficiently constrained and awkward. Alderman Van Beverout a.s.sumed a manner of offended authority and wounded affection; while the officer of the Queen wore an air of compelled submission to a duty that he found to be disagreeable. The introduction of the discourse was consequently ceremonious, and punctiliously observant of courtesy.

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