ng contentedly in a room with locked door close by. During that
hour your tongue did not spare my temper for one moment. For this
recognition of manly forbearance and chivalry--even though you choose to
deny their existence--do I humbly thank you. Despite--or perhaps because
of your harsh estimate of me--you made me feel to-night almost a
gentleman."

With his habitual elegance of gesture he swept her a deep bow, then
without another word or look, and with firm, ringing steps he walked
quickly out of the room.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE START

Once the door safely closed behind him, he heaved a deep sigh as if of
intense relief and he passed his hand quickly across his brow.

"By St. Bavon," he murmured, "my friend Diogenes, thou hast had to face
unpleasantness before now--those arquebusiers at Magdeburg were
difficult to withstand, those murderous blackguards in the forests of
Prague nearly had thy skin, but verdommt be thou, if thou hast had to
hold thy temper in bounds like this before. Dondersteen! how I could
have crushed that sharp-tongued young vixen till she cried for
mercy ... or silenced those venomous lips with a kiss!... I was sore
tempted indeed to give her real cause for calling me a knave...."

In the tap-room downstairs he found Pythagoras and Socrates curled up on
the floor in front of the hearth. They were fast asleep, and Diogenes
did not attempt to wake them. He had given them their orders for the
next day earlier in the evening and with the promise of 500 golden
guilders to be won by implicit obedience the two worthies were not like
to disobey.

He himself had his promise to his friend Hals to redeem ... the flight
along the frozen waterways back to Haarlem, a few hours spent in the
studio in the Peuselaarsteeg, then the return flight to rejoin his
compeers and the jongejuffrouw at the little hamlet of Houdekerk off the
main road; thither he had ordered them to proceed in the early morning
there to lie perdu until his return. Houdekerk lay to the east of
Leyden and so well off the beaten track that the little party would be
safely hidden there during the day;--he intended to be with them again
well before midnight of the next day. For the nonce he collected a few
necessary provisions which he had ordered to be ready for him--a half
bottle of wine, some meat and bread, then he made his way out of the
little hostelry and across the courtyard to the stables where the horses
had been put up. T