“I can assure you, sir, that others share his disappointment. Mr. Adams would not object to be Duke of New York, and even little Burr would like a lordship.”
“I have heard; my ears are not dull, nor my eyes blind. But too much out of the world lives your father; men who do so grow unfit to live in the world. He dreams dreams impossible to us—impossible to France—and then he says ‘Liberty is a dream.’ Well, well, Life also is a dream—when we awake—”
Then he ceased speaking, and there was silence until Lysbet Van Heemskirk said, softly, “When we awake, WE SHALL BE SATISFIED.”
Van Heernskirk smiled at his wife’s cheerful assurance, and continued, “It is true, Lysbet, what you say; and even here, in our dreaming, what satisfaction! As for me, I expect not too much. The old order and the new order fight yet for the victory; and what passes now will be worth talking about fifty years hence.”
“It is said, grandfather, that the Dutch church is anti-Federal to a man.”
“Not true are such sayings. The church will be very like old Van Steenwyck, who boasts of his impartiality, and who votes for the Federals once, and for the anti-Federals once, and the third time does not vote at all. If taken was the vote of the Church, it would be six for the Federals and half-a-dozen for the anti-Federals.”
“Mr. Burr—”
“Of Mr. Burr I will not talk. I like not his little dirty politics.”
“He is very clever.”
“Well, then, you have to praise him for being clever; for being honest you cannot praise him.”