ough no great
proficient, he admired the art; sometimes pausing to glance over the
work of one of his absent pupils, but more frequently placing himself at
the window, from whence he might observe the passengers who threaded the
obscure by-street in which his studio was placed.

'Said you not, Godfrey,' exclaimed Douw, after a long and fruitless gaze
from his post of observation, and turning to Schalken--'said you not the
hour of appointment was at about seven by the clock of the Stadhouse?'

'It had just told seven when I first saw him, sir,' answered the
student.

'The hour is close at hand, then,' said the master, consulting
a horologe as large and as round as a full-grown orange. 'Mynher
Vanderhausen, from Rotterdam--is it not so?'

'Such was the name.'

'And an elderly man, richly clad?' continued Douw.

'As well as I might see,' replied his pupil; 'he could not be young, nor
yet very old neither, and his dress was rich and grave, as might become
a citizen of wealth and consideration.'

At this moment the sonorous boom of the Stadhouse clock told, stroke
after stroke, the hour of seven; the eyes of both master and student
were directed to the door; and it was not until the last peal of the old
bell had ceased to vibrate, that Douw exclaimed:

'So, so; we shall have his worship presently--that is, if he means to
keep his hour; if not, thou mayst wait for him, Godfrey, if you court
the acquaintance of a capricious burgomaster. As for me, I think our
old Leyden contains a sufficiency of such commodities, without an
importation from Rotterdam.'

Schalken laughed, as in duty bound; and after a pause of some minutes,
Douw suddenly exclaimed:

'What if it should all prove a jest, a piece of mummery got up by
Vankarp, or some such worthy! I wish you had run all risks, and
cudgelled the old burgomaster, stadholder, or whatever else he may
be, soundly. I would wager a dozen of Rhenish, his worship would have
pleaded old acquaintance before the third application.'

'Here he comes, sir,' said Schalken, in a low admonitory tone; and
instantly, upon turning towards the door, Gerard Douw observed the same
figure which had, on the day before, so unexpectedly greeted the vision
of his pupil Schalken.

There was something in the air and mien of the figure which at once
satisfied the painter that there was no mummery in the case, and that
he really stood in the presence of a man of worship; and so, without
hesitation,