The Bow of Orange Ribbon: A Romance of New York

by Amelia E. Barr

"Woman, woman," meditated the smiling elder; "she is never too angry to be won wi' a mouthful o' sweet words, special if you add a bow or a kiss to them. My certie! when a husband can get his ain way at sic a sma' price, it's just wonderfu' he doesna buy it in perpetuity."

Joris was somewhat comforted by his old friend's sympathy; for the elder, in the hour of trial, knew how to be magnanimous. But the father's wound lay deeper than human love could reach. He was suffering from what all suffer who are wounded in their affections; for alas, alas, how poorly do we love even those whom we love most! We are not only bruised by the limitations of their love for us, but also by the limitations of our own love for them. And those who know what it is to be strong enough to wrestle, and yet not strong enough to overcome, will understand how the grief, the anger, the jealousy, the resentment, from which he suffered, amazed Joris; he had not realized before the depth and strength of his feelings.

He tried to put the memory of Katherine away, but he could not accomplish a miracle. The girl's face was ever before him. He felt her caressing fingers linked in his own; and, as he walked in his house and his garden, her small feet pattered beside him. For as there are in creation invisible bonds that do not break like mortal bonds, so also there are correspondences subsisting between souls, despite the separation of distance.

"I would forget Katherine if I could," he said to Dominie Van Linden; and the good man, bravely putting aside his private grief, took the hands of Joris in his own, and bending toward him, answered, "That would be a great pity. Why forget? Trust, rather, that out of sorrow God will bring to you joy."

"Not natural is that, Dominie. How can it be? I do not understand how it can be."

"You do not understand! Well, then, och mijn jongen, what matters comprehension, if you have faith? Trust, now, that it is well with the child,"

But Joris believed it was ill with her; and he blamed not only himself, but every one in connection with Katherine, for results which he was certain might have been foreseen and prevented. Did he not foresee them? Had he not spoken plainly enough to Hyde and to Lysbet and to the child herself? He should have seen her to Albany, to her sister Cornelia. For he believed now that Lysbet had not cordially disapproved of Hyde; and as for Joanna, she had been far too much occupied with Batavius and her own marriage to care for any other thing. And one of his great fears was that Katherine also would forget her father and mother and home, and become a willing alien from her own people.

He was so wrapped up in his grief, that he did not notice that Bram was suffering also. Bram got the brunt of the world's wonderings and inquiries. People who did not like to ask Joris questions, felt no such delicacy with Bram. And Bram not only tenderly loved his sister: he hated with the unreasoning passion of youth the entire English soldiery. He made no exception now. They were the visible marks of a subjection which he was sworn, heart and soul, to oppose. It humiliated him among his fellows, that his sister should have fled with one of them. It gave those who envied and disliked him an opportunity of inflicting covert and cruel wounds. Joris could, in some degree, control himself; he could speak of the marriage with regret, but without passion; he had even alluded, in some cases, to Hyde's family and expectations. The majority believed that he was secretly a little proud of the alliance. But Bram was aflame with indignation; first, if the marriage were at all doubted; second, if it were supposed to be a satisfactory one to any member of the Van Heemskirk family.

As to the doubters, they were completely silenced when the next issue of the "New York Gazette" appeared; for among its most conspicuous advertisements was the following:

Married, Oct. 19, 1765, by the Rev. Mr. Somers, chaplain to his Excellency the Governor, Richard Drake Hyde, of Hyde Manor, Norfolk, son of the late Richard Drake Hyde, and brother of William Drake Hyde, Earl of Dorset and Hyde, to Katherine, the youngest daughter of Joris and Lysbet Van Heemskirk, of the city and province of New York.