:

"Do not speak just now, mynheer," he said with his wonted good-humour.
"Were you to speak now, I feel that your words would not be
characterized by that dignity and courtesy which one would expect from
so noble a gentleman."

"Smeerlap!--" began Stoutenburg once more.

"There now," rejoined the other with imperturbable bonhomie, "what did I
tell you? Believe me, sir, 'tis much the best to be silent if pleasant
words fail to reach one's lips."

"A truce on this nonsense," quoth Stoutenburg hotly, "you took me
unawares--like a coward...."

"Well said, mynheer! Like a coward--that is just how I took you--in the
act of striking a miserable atom of humanity--who is as defenceless as a
sparrow."

"'Tis ludicrous indeed to see a man of your calling posing as the
protector of women," retorted Stoutenburg with a sneer. "But enough of
this. You find me unarmed at this moment, else you had already paid for
this impudent interference."

"I thank you, sir," said Diogenes as he swept the Lord of Stoutenburg a
deep, ironical bow, "I thank you for thus momentarily withholding
chastisement from my unworthiness. When may I have the honour of calling
on your Magnificence in order that you might mete unto me the punishment
which I have so amply deserved?"

"That chastisement will lose nothing by waiting, since indeed your
insolence passes belief," quoth Stoutenburg hotly. "Now go!" he added,
choosing not to notice the wilfully impertinent attitude of the other
man, "leave me alone with this wench. My business is with her."

"So is mine, gracious lord," rejoined Diogenes with a bland smile, "else
I were not here. This room is mine--perhaps your Magnificence did not
know that--you would not like surely to remain my guest a moment longer
than you need."

"Of a truth I knew that the baggage was your sweetheart--else I had not
come at all."

"Leave off insulting the girl, man," said Diogenes whose moustache
bristled again, a sure sign that his temper was on the boil, "she has
told you the truth, she knows nothing of the whereabouts of the noble
lady who has disappeared from Haarlem. An you desire information on that
point you had best get it elsewhere."

But Stoutenburg had in the meanwhile succeeded in recovering--at any
rate partially--his presence of mind. All his life he had been
accustomed to treat these foreign adventurers with the contempt which
they deserved. In the days of John of Barneveld's high position in the
St