t may have been hurt (I can't say vanity as I might with some
men, because Jonkheer Brederode isn't a bit vain, though he has a right
to be) and he may have turned his thoughts toward one who sympathized
with him. Several little things lately have looked as if it were so; but
I do pray it's not, now that I'm so happy. It would be too hard if he
were to bear a double disappointment, after the trouble he has taken,
and the sacrifices he has made--leaving his beautiful home and all its
luxuries, and the friends who appreciate him as a splendid fellow and a
grand sportsman, to be skipper week after week on this little boat."

"You forget that he has had the privilege of _my_ society," I reminded
her.

"Oh yes, I know you must be great chums, or he wouldn't have come. But
Robert says----"

"What does Robert say?"

"Nothing. Only that he and Jonkheer Brederode have known each other so
long, he thinks it odd never to have heard him mention your name as his
friend."

"Alb is singularly reserved," I remarked.

"So I said to Robert, and he admitted it. But it was rather a
coincidence that he wanted to know us, wasn't it? However, I suppose
your friendship must have made up to him for everything he's suffered. I
did dread his learning about Robert and me, for fear it might hurt him,
and Robert did too, a little; for Robert is so adorably foolish, he
thinks every one must care for me. But he told him this morning."

"What did Alb say?" I asked.

"He congratulated Robert as sweetly as possible; but Robert said his
face changed when he heard the news. I didn't dare to look up when the
Jonkheer came and made me nice wishes, for fear he might be looking sad;
and there _was_ a heavy sound in his voice, I thought. Oh dear, life's
very complicated, isn't it?"

"Yes," I admitted. "Even in Holland."

Perhaps these women are right. Perhaps Alb's heart has been caught in
the rebound; but, lest it hasn't, and he undertakes to cut me out with
Nell, it is necessary that I lose no time in using my best wiles with
her.

While Phyllis was hanging in the balance, she was as desirable as a rosy
apple just out of reach; but now that she is smugly satisfied to be in
the hands of another her ethereal charm is fled.

"I must congratulate van Buren," I said, "or he will believe I'm
jealous."

So I shook hands with the Viking, having blessed the pair, and was in
the act of annexing Nell when the alleged Lady MacNairne found it
convenient