It took a long time to tell--for she had suffered more, felt more, lived more in the past five days than would fill an ordinary life--nor did she disguise anything from her father, not even the conversation which she had had at Rotterdam in the dead of night with the man who had remained nameless until now, and in consequence of which he had gone at once to warn the Stadtholder and had thus averted the hideous conspiracy which would have darkened for ever the destinies of many Dutch homes. Of Nicolaes she did not speak; she knew that he had confessed his guilt to his father, who would know how to forgive in the fullness of time. When she had finished speaking her father said somewhat roughly: "But for that vervloekte adventurer down there, you would never have suffered, Gilda, as you did. Nicolaes...." "Nicolaes, father dear," she broke in quietly, "is very dear to us both. I think that his momentary weakness will endear him to us even more. But he was a tool in the hands of that unscrupulous Stoutenburg--and but for that nameless and penniless soldier whose hand you were proud to grasp just now, I would not be here in your arms at this moment." "Ah!" said Cornelius Beresteyn dryly, "is this the way that the wind blows, my girl? Did you not know then that the rascal--the day after he dared to lay hands upon you--was back again in Haarlem bargaining with me to restore you to my arms in exchange for a fortune?" "And two days later, father dear," she retorted, "he endured insults, injuries, cruelties from Stoutenburg, rather than betray Nicolaes' guilt before me." "Hm!" murmured Cornelius, and there was a humorous twinkle in his eyes as he looked down upon his daughter's bowed head. "And but for that same rascal, father," she continued softly, "you would at this moment be mourning a dead daughter and Holland a hideous act of treachery." "Hush, my dear!" cried the old man impulsively, as he put his kind protecting arms round the child whom he loved so dearly. "I would never have followed the Lord of Stoutenburg while I lived," she said simply. "Please God," he said earnestly, "I would sooner have seen you in the crypt beside your mother." "Then, father, hath not the rascal you speak of deserved well of us? Can we not guess that even originally he took me away from Haarlem, only because he knew that if he refused the bargain, proposed to him by mine own brother, Stoutenburg would have found some other means of ensuring my silence." "You are a good advocate, my girl," rejoined Cornelius with a sly wink which brought the colour rushing up to Gilda's cheeks. "I think, by your leave, I'll go and shake that vervloekte Keerl once more by the hand.... And ... shall I tell him that you bear him no ill-will?" he added roguishly. "Yes, father dear, tell him that," she said gently. "Then will you go to bed, dear?" he asked, "you are overwrought and tired." "I will sit by the window quietly for a quarter of an hour," she said,