“Pardon me, sir, but I am turned eighty and I did not see you at first. No offense I hope. My sister always says—you don’t know the girl, do you? Of course not, but she was a wench in her day though she’s not so comely now. There is a sad look in her face for her man—him that was to be her man went to sea and she’s waiting for him yet. That’s forty years ago and the girl’s turned sixty-four last Niewe Jarre. Oh, our family has memory.” “It is your memory I want to test, Bromm,” said the governor. “We have good reason to believe that within a twelvemonth Ruth Le Bourse was bound into service before the Stadt Huys. If such be the case you may have cried the proclamation for her sale. Have you any recollection of it? Now make an effort to remember. The name is Ruth Le Bourse.” The old man planted his staff firmly on the floor and grasped it with both his hands while he thought. His memory seemed to give him no clue. He knit his brows, changed the position of his hands upon his staff, hemmed and hawed. But at last, just as he seemed about to give it up, his face brightened. “Ay, Sir Richard, I have it. My cousin’s second wife’s sister’s girl’s name was Ruth. I knew we had a Ruth in the family. Ah, we have memory, we Bromms.” I sighed in disappointment. The Earl suppressed a smile and led the crier’s vagrant thoughts back and forth among his confused recollections of the past year. But to no avail. He had not the slightest information to give us and we were no better off than before. “Well,” the Earl said at last. “I shall request you to be on hand at two o’clock this afternoon, Bromm, to make public proclamation in the market place. It is not unlikely that someone will have heard of her and can give me information that we are desirous to obtain.” This broke up our meeting. There was now nothing left to do till the advantage of the proclamation had been put to the test. As we moved toward the door of the reception hall, the minister walked first with Bromm. The governor laid his hand upon my arm and quietly motioned me to step back into the room with him. “Monsieur Le Bourse, we have gone so far in our mutual confidence that it may be well to extend it a little farther. There were words of high contention in the council meeting to-day between me and Patroon Van Volkenberg. What I now impart to you is strictly _entre nous_, as you Frenchmen say. I trust the patroon’s word no more than—at least I do not understand this sudden spleen of friendliness. You say that Colonel Fletcher was trying to soothe him in the coffee-house?” “Yes, continually.”