When Schalken studied under the
immortal Gerard Douw, he was a young
man; and in spite of the phlegmatic
constitution and unexcitable manner which he
shared, we believe, with his countrymen,
he was not incapable of deep and vivid
impressions, for it is an established fact that
the young painter looked with considerable
interest upon the beautiful niece of his
wealthy master.

Rose Velderkaust was very young,
having, at the period of which we speak,
not yet attained her seventeenth year, and,
if tradition speaks truth, possessed all the
soft dimpling charms of the fail; light-
haired Flemish maidens. Schalken had
not studied long in the school of Gerard
Douw, when he felt this interest deepening
into something of a keener and intenser
feeling than was quite consistent with the
tranquillity of his honest Dutch heart;
and at the same time he perceived, or
thought he perceived, flattering symptoms
of a reciprocity of liking, and this was
quite sufficient to determine whatever
indecision he might have heretofore
experienced, and to lead him to devote
exclusively to her every hope and feeling of his