closely scrutinized.  True, the “King’s Arms” was the great rendezvous of the military and government officials, and the landlord himself subserviently loyal; but, also, Joris Van Heemskirk was not a man with whom any good citizen would like to quarrel.  Personally he was much beloved, and socially he stood as representative of a class which held in their hands commercial and political power no one cared to oppose or offend.

The marriage license had been obtained from the governor, but extraordinary influence had been used to procure it.  Katherine was under age, and yet subject to her father’s authority.  In spite of book and priest and ring, he could retain his child for at least three years; and three years, Hyde—­in talking with his aunt—­called “an eternity of doubt and despair.”  These facts, Hyde, in his letters, had fully explained to Katherine; and she understood clearly how important the preservation of her secret was, and how much toward allaying suspicion depended upon her own behaviour.  Fortunately Joanna’s wedding day was drawing near, and it absorbed what attention the general public had for the Van Heemskirk family.  For it was a certain thing, developing into feasting and dancing; and it quite put out of consideration suspicions which resulted in nothing, when people examined them in the clear atmosphere of Katherine’s home.

At the feast of St. Nicholas the marriage was to take place.  Early in November the preparations for it began.  No such great event could happen without an extraordinary housecleaning; and from garret to cellar the housemaid’s pail and brush were in demand.  Spotless was every inch of paint, shining every bit of polished wood and glass; not a thimbleful of dust in the whole house.  Toward the end of the month, Anna and Cornelia arrived, with their troops of rosy boys and girls, and their slow, substantial husbands.  Batavius felt himself to be a very great man.  The weight of his affairs made him solemn and preoccupied.  He was not one of those light, foolish ones, who can become a husband and a householder without being sensible of the responsibilities they assume.

In the midst of all this household excitement Katherine found some opportunities of seeing Mrs. Gordon; and in the joy of receiving letters from, and sending letters to, her husband, she recovered a gayety of disposition which effectually repressed all urgent suspicions.  Besides, as the eventful day drew near, there was so much to attend to.  Joanna’s personal goods, her dresses and household linen, her china, and wedding gifts, had to be packed; the house was decorated; and there was a most amazing quantity of delicacies to be prepared for the table.

In the middle of the afternoon of the day before the marriage, there was the loud rat-tat-tat of the brass knocker, announcing a visitor.  But visitors had been constant since the arrival of Cornelia and Anna, and Katherine did not much trouble herself as to whom it might be.  She was standing upon a ladder, pinning among the evergreens and scarlet berries rosettes and bows of ribbon of the splendid national colour, and singing with a delightsome cheeriness,—­