Part 22 (2/2)
”Consent and joy! The girl need not have stolen to church to become the bride of Oloff Van Staats!” interrupted the Alderman. ”She should have had my benediction on the match, and a fat gift to give it unction.”
”These suspicions are but natural, between men bent on the same object,”
resumed the free-trader. ”The officer of the Queen thinks a glance of the eye, from a wilful fair, means admiration of broad lands and rich meadows; and the lord of the manor distrusts the romance of warlike service, and the power of an imagination which roams the sea. Still may I ask, what is there here, to tempt a proud and courted beauty to forget station, s.e.x, and friends?”
”Caprice and vanity! There is no answering for a woman's mind! Here we bring articles, at great risk and heavy charges, from the farther Indies, to please their fancies, and they change their modes easier than the beaver casts his coat. Their conceits sadly unsettle trade, and I know not why they may not cause a wilful girl to do any other act of folly.”
”This reasoning seems conclusive with the uncle. Do the suitors a.s.sent to its justice?”
The Patroon of Kinderhook had stood gazing, long and earnestly, at the countenance of the extraordinary being who asked this question. A movement, which bespoke, equally, his conviction and his regret, escaped him, but he continued silent. Not so Ludlow. Of a more ardent temperament, though equally sensible of the temptation which had caused Alida to err, and as keenly alive to all the consequences to herself, as well as to others, there was something of professional rivalry, and of an official right to investigate, which still mingled with his feelings. He had found time to examine more closely the articles that the cabin contained, and when their singular host put his question, he pointed, with an ironical but mournful smile, to a footstool richly wrought in flowers of tints and shades so just as to seem natural.
”This is no work of a sail-maker's needle!” said the captain of the Coquette. ”Other beauties have been induced to pa.s.s an idle hour in your gay residence, hardy mariner; but, sooner or later, judgment will overtake the light-heeled craft.”
”On the wind, or off, she must some day lag, as we seamen have it! Captain Ludlow, I excuse some harshness of construction, that your language might imply; for it becomes a commissioned servant of the crown, to use freedom with one who, like the lawless companion of the princely Hal, is but too apt to propose to 'rob me the King's Exchequer.' But, Sir, this brigantine and her character are little known to you. We have no need of truant damsels, to let us into the mystery of the s.e.x's taste; for a female spirit guides all our humors, and imparts something of her delicacy to all our acts, even though it be the fas.h.i.+on among burghers to call them lawless. See,” throwing a curtain carelessly aside, and exhibiting, behind it, various articles of womanly employment, ”here are the offspring of both pencil and needle. The sorceress,” touching the image on his breast, ”will not be entertained, without some deference to her s.e.x.”
”This affair must be arranged, I see, by a compromise,” observed the Alderman. ”By your leave, gentlemen, I will make proposals in private to this bold trader, who perhaps will listen to the offers I have to propose.”
”Ah! This savors more of the spirit of trade than of that of the sea-G.o.ddess I serve,” cried the other, causing his fingers to run lightly over the strings of the guitar. ”Compromise and offers are sounds that become a burgher's lips. My tricksy spirit, commit these gentlemen to the care of bold Thomas Tiller, while I confer with the merchant. The character of Mr. Van Beverout, Captain Ludlow, will protect us both from the suspicion of any designs on the revenue!”
Laughing at his own allusion, the free-trader signed to the boy, who had appeared from behind a curtain, to show the disappointed suitors of la belle Barberie into another part of the vessel.
”Foul tongues and calumnies! Master Seadrift, this unlawful manner of playing round business, after accounts are settled and receipts pa.s.sed, may lead to other loss besides that of character. The commander of the Coquette is not more than half satisfied of my ignorance of your misdoings in behalf of the customs, already; and these jokes are like so many punches into a smouldering fire, on a dark night. They only give light, and cause people to see the clearer:--though, Heaven knows, no man has less reason to dread an inquiry into his affairs than myself! I challenge the best accountant in the colonies to detect a false footing, or a doubtful entry, in any book I have, from the Memorandum to the Leger.”
”The Proverbs are not more sententious, nor the Psalms half as poetical, as your library. But why this secret parley?--The brigantine has a swept hold.”
”Swept! Brooms and Van Tromp! Thou hast swept the pavilion of my niece of its mistress, no less than my purse of its johannes. This is carrying a little innocent barter into a most forbidden commerce, and I hope the joke is to end, before the affair gets to be sweetening to the tea of the Province gossips. Such a tale would affect the autumn importation of sugars!”
”This is more vivid than clear. You have my laces and velvets; my brocades and satins are already in the hands of the Manhattan dames; and your furs and johannes are safe where no boarding officer from the Coquette--”
”Well, there is no need of speaking-trumpets, to tell a man what he knows already, to his cost! I should expect no less than bankruptcy from two or three such bargains, and you wish to add loss of character to loss of gold. Bulk-heads have ears in a s.h.i.+p, as well as walls in houses. I wish no more said of the trifling traffic that has been between us. If I lose a thousand florins by the operation, I shall know how to be resigned.
Patience and afflictions! Have I not buried as full-fed and promising a gelding this morning, as ever paced a pavement, and has any man heard a complaint from my lips? I know how to meet losses, I hope; and so no more of an unhicky purchase.”
”Truly, if it be not for trade, there is little in common between the mariners of the brigantine and Alderman Van Beverout.”
”The greater the necessity thou shouldst end this silly joke, and restore his niece. I am not sure the affair can be at all settled with either of these hotheaded young men, though I should even offer to throw in a few thousands more, by way of make-weight. When female reputation gets a bad name in the market, 'tis harder to dispose of than falling stock; and your young lords of manors and commanders of cruisers have stomachs like usurers; no per centage will satisfy them; it must be all, or nothing!
There was no such foolery in the days of thy worthy father! The honest trafficker brought his cutter into port, with as innocent a look as a mill-boat. We had our discourses on the qualities of his wares, when here was his price, and there was my gold. Odd or even! It was all a chance which had the best of the bargain. I was a thriving man in those days, Master Seadrift; but thy spirit seems the spirit of extortion itself!”
There was momentarily contempt on the lip of the handsome smuggler, but it disappeared in an expression of evident and painful sadness.
”Thou hast softened my heart, ere now, most liberal burgher,” he answered, ”by these allusions to my parent; and many is the doubloon that I have paid for his eulogies.”
”I speak as disinterestedly as a parson preaches! What is a trifle of gold between friends? Yes, there was happiness in trade during the time of thy predecessor. He had a comely and a deceptive craft, that might be likened to an untrimmed racer. There was motion in it, at need, and yet it had the air of a leisurely Amsterdammer. I have known an Exchequer cruiser hail him, and ask the news of the famous free-trader, with as little suspicion as he have in speaking the Lord High Admiral! There were no fooleries in his time; no unseemly hussies stuck under his bowsprit, to put an honest man out of countenance; no high-fliers in sail and paint; no singing and luting--but all was rational and gainful barter. Then, he was a man to ballast his boat with something valuable. I have known him throw in fifty ankers of gin, without a farthing for freight, when a bargain has been struck for the finer articles--ay, and finish by landing them in England for a small premium, when the gift was made!”
”He deserves thy praise, grateful Alderman; but to what conclusion does this opening tend?”
”Well, if more gold must pa.s.s between us,” continued the reluctant Myndert, ”we shall not waste time in counting it; though, Heaven knows, Master Seadrift, thou hast already drained me dry. Losses have fallen heavy on me, of late. There is a gelding, dead, that fifty Holland ducats will not replace on the boom-key of Rotterdam, to say nothing of freight and charges, which come particularly heavy--”
”Speak to thy offer!” interrupted the other, who evidently wished to shorten the interview.
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