aps felt, nothing; one only thought. Of
living creatures only birds came there freely, the sea-birds
especially, to attract and detain which there were all sorts of
ingenious contrivances about the windows, such as one may see in the
cottage sceneries of Jan Steen and others. There was something,
doubtless, of his passion for distance in this welcoming of the
creatures of the air. An extreme simplicity in their manner of life
was, indeed, characteristic of many a distinguished Hollander--William
the Silent, Baruch de Spinosa, the brothers de Witt. But the simplicity
of Sebastian van Storck was something different from that, and
certainly nothing democratic. His mother thought him like one
disembarrassing himself carefully, and little by little, of all
impediments, habituating himself gradually to make shift with as little
as possible, in preparation for a long journey.

The Burgomaster van Storck entertained a party of friends, consisting
chiefly of his favourite artists, one summer evening. The guests were
seen arriving on foot in the fine weather, some of them accompanied by
their wives and daughters, against the light of the low sun, falling
red on the old trees of the avenue and the faces of those who advanced
along it:--Willem van Aelst, expecting to find hints for a
flower-portrait in the exotics which would decorate the
banqueting-room; Gerard Dow, to feed his eye, amid all that glittering
luxury, on the combat between candle-light and the last rays of the
departing sun; Thomas de Keyser, to catch by stealth the likeness of
Sebastian the younger. Albert Cuyp was there, who, developing the
latent gold in Rembrandt, had brought into his native Dordrecht a heavy
wealth of sunshine, as exotic as those flowers or the eastern carpets
on the Burgomaster's tables, with Hooch, the indoor Cuyp, and Willem
van de Velde, who painted those shore-pieces with gay ships of war,
such as he loved, for his patron's cabinet. Thomas de Keyser came, in
company with his brother Peter, his niece, and young Mr. Nicholas Stone
from England, pupil of that brother Peter, who afterwards married the
niece. For the life of Dutch artists, too, was exemplary in matters of
domestic relationship, its history telling many a cheering story of
mutual faith in misfortune. Hardly less exemplary was the comradeship
which they displayed among themselves, obscuring their own best gifts
sometimes, one in the mere accessories of another man's work, so that