| PAGE | |
| She was going down the steps with him | [Frontispiece] |
| May in New York one hundred and twenty-one years ago | [3] |
| Joris Van Heemskirk | [4] |
| Locking-up the cupboards | [7] |
| She was tying on her white apron | [11] |
| "Come awa', my bonnie lassie" | [13] |
| Knitting | [16] |
| Neil and Bram | [19] |
| Tail-piece | [20] |
| Chapter heading | [21] |
| With her spelling-book and Heidelberg | [24] |
| The amber necklace | [27] |
| In one of those tall-backed Dutch chairs | [34] |
| Tail-piece | [38] |
| Chapter heading | [39] |
| He heard her calling him to breakfast | [42] |
| The quill pens must be mended | [49] |
| A Guelderland flagon | [53] |
| "A very proper love-knot" | [57] |
| Tail-piece | [62] |
| Chapter heading | [63] |
| Hyde flung off the touch with a passionate oath | [65] |
| Batavius stood at the mainmast | [67] |
| He took her in his arms | [71] |
| A little black boy entered | [75] |
| Tail-piece | [82] |
| Chapter heading | [83] |
| "Sir, you are very uncivil" | [89] |
| "Listen to me, thy father!" | [97] |
| He took his solitary tea | [102] |
| On the steps of the houses | [105] |
| Tail-piece | [106] |
| Chapter heading | [107] |
| "Katherine, I am in great earnest" | 1[10] |
| "In the interim, at your service" | [116] |
| "Why do you wait?" | [122] |
| The swords of both men sprung from their hands | [125] |
| Tail-piece | [127] |
| Chapter heading | [128] |
| Oh, how she wept! | [133] |
| "O Bram! is he dead?" | [137] |
| The streets were noisy with hawkers | [146] |
| Katherine was close to his side | [151] |
| Tail-piece | [155] |
| Chapter heading | [156] |
| In its satin depths | [162] |
| Katherine knelt by Richard's side | [164] |
| "I am faint" | [175] |
| "Don't trouble yourself to come down" | [178] |
| "Listen to me!" | [183] |
| Tail-piece | [187] |
| Chapter heading | [188] |
| They stood together over the budding snowdrops | [193] |
| His whole air and attitude had expressed delight | [198] |
| "I am going to take the air this afternoon" | [207] |
| "I will go with you, Richard" | [211] |
| Tail-piece | [214] |
| Chapter heading | [215] |
| "Madam, I come not on courtesy" | [220] |
| "O mother, my sister Katherine!" | [226] |
| "Oh, my cheeny, my cheeny!" | [231] |
| Plain and dark were her garments | [237] |
| Tail-piece | [240] |
| Chapter heading | [241] |
| Katherine stood with her child in her arms | [243] |
| The garden next fell under Katherine's care | [246] |
| "Thou has a grandson of thy own name" | [249] |
| Plate old and new | [252] |
| "Make me not to remember the past" | [258] |
| With a great sob Bram laid his head against her breast | [263] |
| Chapter heading | [266] |
| She spread out all her finery | [273] |
| All kinds of frivolity and amusement | [278] |
| "Dick, I am angry at you" | [282] |
| She was softly singing to the drowsy child | [285] |
| Chapter heading | [289] |
| She was stretched upon a sofa | [295] |
| She stood in the gray light by the window | [301] |
| Chapter heading | [303] |
| She knelt speechless and motionless | [307] |
| Jane lifted her apron to her eyes | [311] |
| "O Richard, my lover, my husband!" | [317] |
| Chapter heading | [320] |
| "One night in Rome, in a moment, the thing was altered," | [323] |
| "I must draw my sword again" | [328] |
| "We have closed his Majesty's custom-house forever" | [333] |
| "I am reading the Word" | [339] |
| He was standing on the step of his high counting-desk. | [345] |
| Chapter heading | [348] |
| Lysbet and Catherine were unpacking | [350] |
| He marshalled the six children in front of him | [354] |
| The City Hall | [358] |
| He swung a great axe | [359] |
| Lysbet's hands gave it to them | [365] |
| Tail-piece | [371] |
THE BOW OF ORANGE RIBBON
I.
"Love, that old song, of which the world is never weary."
It was one of those beautiful, lengthening days, when May was pressing back with both hands the shades of the morning and the evening; May in New York one hundred and twenty-one years ago, and yet the May of A.D. 1886,—the same clear air and wind, the same rarefied freshness, full of faint, passing aromas from the wet earth and the salt sea and the blossoming gardens. For on the shore of the East River the gardens still sloped down, even to below Peck Slip; and behind old Trinity the apple-trees blossomed like bridal nosegays, the pear-trees rose in immaculate pyramids, and here and there cows were coming up heavily to the scattered houses; the lazy, intermitting tinkle of their bells giving a pleasant notice of their approach to the waiting milking-women.
In the city the business of the day was over; but at the open doors of many of the shops, little groups of apprentices in leather aprons were talking, and on the broad steps of the City Hall a number of grave-looking men were slowly separating after a very satisfactory civic session. They had been discussing the marvellous increase of the export trade of New York; and some vision of their city's future greatness may have appeared to them, for they held themselves with the lofty and confident air of wealthy merchants and "members of his Majesty's Council for the Province of New York."
They were all noticeable men, but Joris Van Heemskirk specially so. His bulk was so great that it seemed as if he must have been built up: it was too much to expect that he had ever been a baby. He had a fair, ruddy face, and large, firm eyes, and a mouth that was at once strong and sweet. And he was also very handsomely dressed. The long, stiff skirts of his dark-blue coat were lined with satin, his breeches were black velvet, his ruffles edged with Flemish lace, his shoes clasped with silver buckles, his cocked hat made of the finest beaver.