Katherine looked thoughtfully around. There was a small Chinese cabinet
on a table: she went to it, and took from a drawer a bow of orange
ribbon. Holding it doubtfully in her hand, she said, "My St. Nicholas
ribbon."
"La, miss, I thought you were a Calvinist! What are you talking of the
saints for?"
"St. Nicholas is our saint, our own saint; and on his day we wear
orange. Yes, even my father then, on his silk cap, puts an orange bow.
Orange is the Dutch colour, you know, madam."
"Indeed, child, I do not know; but, if so, then it is the best colour
to send to your true love."
"For the Dutch, orange always. On the great days of the kirk, my father
puts blue with it. Blue is the colour of the Dutch Calvinists."
"Make me thankful to learn so much. Then when Councillor Van Heemskirk
wears his blue and orange, he says to the world, 'I am a Dutchman and a
Calvinist'?"
"That is the truth. For the Vaderland the Moeder-Kerk he wears their
colours. The English, too, they will have their own colour!"
"La, my dear, England claims every colour! But, indeed, even an English
officer may now wear an orange favour; for I remember well when our
Princess Anne married the young Prince of Orange. Oh, I assure you the
House of Nassau is close kin to the House of Hanover! And when English
princesses marry Dutch princes, then surely English officers may marry
Dutch maidens. Your bow of orange ribbon is a very proper love-knot."
"Indeed, madam, I never"-"There, there! I can really wait no longer. Some one is already in a
fever of impatience. 'Tis a quaintly pretty room; I am happy to have seen
its curious treasures. Good-by again, child; my service once more to your
mother and sister;" and so, with many compliments, she passed chatting and
laughing out of the house.
Katherine closed the best parlour, and lingered a moment in the act. She
felt that she had permitted Mrs. Gordon to make an appointment for her
lover, and a guilty sense of disobedience made bitter the joy of
expectation. For absolute truthfulness is the foundation of the Dutch
character; and an act of deception was not only a sin according to
Katherine's nature, but one in direct antagonism to it. As she turned
away from the closed parlour, she felt quite inclined to confide
everything to her sister Joanna; but Joanna, who had to finish the
cleaning of the silver, was not in that kind of a temper which invites
confidence; and indeed, Katherine, looking into her calm, preoccupied
face, felt her manner to be a reproof and a restraint.