swer that I was not at home, and mind you say
the same to the Captain Montalvo if he calls," said Lysbeth with some
acerbity as she dismissed her.

In truth she was very sore and angry, and yet ashamed of herself because
it was so. But things had gone so horribly wrong, and as for Dirk, he
was the most exasperating person in the world. It was owing to his
bad management and lack of readiness that her name was coupled with
Montalvo's at every table in Leyden. And now what did she hear in a note
from the Captain himself, sent to make excuses for not having called
upon her after the supper party, but that Dirk was going to dine with
him that night? Very well, let him do it; she would know how to pay him
back, and if necessary was ready to act up to any situation which he had
chosen to create.

Thus thought Lysbeth, stamping her foot with vexation, but all the time
her heart was sore. All the time she knew well enough that she loved
Dirk, and, however strange might be his backwardness in speaking out his
mind, that he loved her. And yet she felt as though a river was running
between them. In the beginning it had been a streamlet, but now it was
growing to a torrent. Worse still the Spaniard was upon her bank of the
river.

After he had to some extent conquered his shyness and irritation Dirk
became aware that he was really enjoying his dinner at Montalvo's
quarters. There were three guests besides himself, two Spanish officers
and a young Netherlander of his own class and age, Brant by name. He was
the only son of a noted and very wealthy goldsmith at The Hague, who had
sent him to study certain mysteries of the metal worker's art under
a Leyden jeweller famous for the exquisite beauty of his designs. The
dinner and the service were both of them perfect in style, but better
than either proved the conversation, which was of a character that Dirk
had never heard at the tables of his own class and people. Not that
there was anything even broad about it, as might perhaps have been
expected. No, it was the talk of highly accomplished and travelled men
of the world, who had seen much and been actors in many moving events;
men who were not overtrammelled by prejudices, religious or other, and
who were above all things desirous of making themselves agreeable and
instructive to the stranger within their gates. The Heer Brant also, who
had but just arrived in Leyden, showed himself an able and polished
man, one that had been educa