Cornelius and his friends, however, gave him no time now for further reflection. All the thinking out would have to be done presently--no doubt on the way between Haarlem and Houdekerk, and probably in a mist of driving snow--for the nonce he had to stand under the fire of unstinted eulogy hurled at him from every side. "Well spoken, young man!" "'Tis gallant bearing forsooth!" "Chivalry, indeed, is not yet dead in Holland." "Are you a Dutchman, sir?" To this direct query he gave reply: "My father was one of those who came in English Leicester's train, whose home was among the fogs of England and under the shadow of her white, mysterious cliffs. My mother was Dutch and he broke her heart...." "Not an unusual story, alas, these times!" quoth a sober mynheer with a sigh. "I know of more than one case like your own, sir. Those English adventurers were well favoured and smooth tongued, and when they gaily returned to their sea-girt island they left a long trail behind them of broken hearts--of sorrowing women and forsaken children." "My mother, sir, was a saint," rejoined Diogenes earnestly, "my father married her in Amsterdam when she was only eighteen. She was his wife, yet he left her homeless and his son fatherless." "But if he saw you, sir, as you are," said Cornelius Beresteyn kindly, "he would surely make amends." "But he shall not see me, sir," retorted Diogenes lightly, "for I hate him so, because of the wrong he did to my mother and to me. He shall never even hear of me unless I succeed in carving mine own independent fortune, or contrive to die like a gentleman." "Both of which, sir, you will surely do," now interposed Beresteyn with solemn conviction. "Your acts and words do proclaim you a gentleman, and therefore you will die one day, just as you have lived. In the meanwhile, I am as good as my word. My daughter's safety, her life and her honour are worth a fortune to me. I am reputed a wealthy man. My business is vast, and I have one million guilders lying at interest in the hands of Mynheer Bergansius the world-famed jeweller of Amsterdam. One-half that money, sir, shall be yours together with my boundless gratitude, if you deliver my daughter out of the hands of the malefactors who have seized her person and bring her back safe and sound to me." "If life is granted me, sir," rejoined Diogenes imperturbably, without a blush or a tremor, "I will find your daughter and bring her safely to you as speedily as God will allow me." "But you cannot do this alone, sir ..." urged Cornelius, on whom doubt and fear had not yet lost their hold. "How will you set to work?" "That, mynheer, is my secret," rejoined Diogenes placidly, "and the discussion of my plans might jeopardise their success." "True, sir; but remember that the anxiety which I suffer now will be increased day by day, until it brings me on the threshold of the grave."