e attention to his affairs, the dexterity
and the rapidity of the movements of Andrew M'Clise, had often elicited
the warmest encomiums of Mynheer Vandermaclin; and many evenings had
Andrew M'Clise passed with him, drinking in moderation their favourite
scheedam, and indulging in the meditative merschaum. Vandermaclin had
often wished that he had a son like Andrew M'Clise, to whom he could
leave his property, with the full assurance that the heap would not be
scattered, but greatly added to.

Vandermaclin was a widower. He had but one daughter, who was now just
arrived at an age to return from the pension to her father's house, and
take upon herself the domestic duties. M'Clise had never yet seen the
beautiful Katerina.

"And so, Mynheer M'Clise," said Vandermaclin, who was sitting in the
warehouse on the ground-floor of his tenement, "you come to purchase the
famous bell of Utrecht; with the intention of fixing it upon that rock,
the danger of which we have so often talked over after the work of the
day has been done? I, too, have suffered from that same rock, as you
well know; but still I have been fortunate. The price will be heavy;
and so it ought to be, for the bell itself is of no small weight."

"We are prepared to pay it, Mynheer Vandermaclin."

"Nevertheless, in so good a cause, and for so good a purport, you shall
not be overcharged. I will say nothing of the beauty of the
workmanship, or even of the mere manufacture. You shall pay but its
value in metal; the same price which the Jew Isaacs offered me for it
but four months ago. I will not ask what a Jew would ask, but what a
Jew would give, which makes no small difference. Have you ten thousand
guilders?"

"I have, and more."

"That is my price, Mynheer M'Clise, and I wish for no more; for I, too,
will contribute my share to the good work. Are you content, and is it a
bargain?"

"It is; and the holy abbots will thank you on vellum, Mynheer
Vandermaclin, for your generosity."

"I prefer the thanks of the bold seamen to those of the idle churchmen;
but, never mind, it is a bargain. Now, we will go in; it is time to
close the doors. We will take our pipes, and you shall make the
acquaintance of my fair daughter, Katerina."

At the time we are speaking of, M'Clise was about six-and-twenty years
of age; he was above the middle size, elegant in person, and with a
frankness and almost nobility in his countenance, which won all who saw
him.