Schalken, eager to resolve his doubts,
had placed himself by the window in order
to watch the street entrance; but the
experiment served only to support his
suspicions, for the old man did not issue from
the door. This was very strange, very
odd, very fearful. He and his master
returned together, and talked but little on
the way, for each had his own sub-
jects of reflection, of anxiety, and of
hope.

Schalken, however, did not know the
ruin which threatened his cherished
schemes.

Gerard Douw knew nothing of the
attachment which had sprung up between
his pupil and his niece; and even if he
had, it is doubtful whether he would have
regarded its existence as any serious
obstruction to the wishes of Mynher Vanderhausen.

Marriages were then and there matters
of traffic and calculation; and it would have
appeared as absurd in the eyes of the guardian
to make a mutual attachment an
essential element in a contract of marriage,
as it would have been to draw up his bonds
and receipts in the language of chivalrous