"She will never forgive me!" "I should say, never." "I did not mean that. She will be angry, of course, but she will not be angry forever. I am awfully sorry to-day. But how can I tell her so? What would you do? Come now, cousin, you are a sensible woman, and you know men must have a little latitude--and really, I was caught so suddenly--and if you would listen, you would understand that there is some excuse for me." "None at all, sir! What is temptation for but to resist?" "I thought I would just take a short drive, and be here to dinner, but I was not very well." "You mean that you dined and drank wine with Madame Z----, and that you could not come afterwards." "She would not let me leave her, and so----" "I thought you would get as far as Adam before you were through with your apology. 'She would not let me!' Just so." "It is too bad to take me up so quickly, when I am distracted with shame and sorrow. What shall I do?" "I would advise you to go to Woodsome and tell Yanna so. She may forgive you, but I doubt if she will ever love you again." "She cannot help loving me. And if she loves, she will forgive." "Do not be too sure of that. Yanna has the stubbornness of the Dutch moral character, and her conscience is strictly Calvinistic. She finds it very hard to forgive her own little peccadillos." "Are you also angry, cousin? You have seen life, and you ought to make allowances." "Right is right, Harry Filmer; and wrong is wrong, even to me; and I am angry and greatly disappointed with you. I have looked forward with so much pleasure to your marriage with Yanna, for you see, sir, it was to me not only a union of hearts and hands, but a union of lands. Yanna is to have all I possess, and if you inherit your father's land, old Peter Van Hoosen's estate will be nearly intact again. Now that simple, conscientious old Dutchman is my hero. His likeness hangs in my private sitting-room, and I have constantly promised him that I would try and put the land he loved all right before I joined him. You need not look at me, Harry, as if you thought I were crazy. I can tell you that there is a motive in working to please the dead, which working for the living has nothing to match. Anyway, they are not always overturning your best-laid plans." "I was only astonished, cousin." "Whenever I manage to buy back an acre, I feel it to be a joy beyond most earthly joys to stand before the mighty-looking old burgomaster and say: 'Another acre put right, Father Peter.' And the canvas speaks to me, and I dream of the old man, and I know that he knows; and that is all about it! So then, you see, I am not the only one you have disappointed. I am sure your ancestor is thoroughly ashamed of you this day." Miss Alida spoke with a singular calm intensity, and Harry was affected by it. Some one tugged at his heart-strings whom he had never before thought of, and he said humbly: "I am sorry! I am very sorry! I will go and see Yanna to-day."