th her dowry, and you
may apply the united sum as suits her interest best; it shall be all
exclusively hers while she lives: is that liberal?"

Douw assented, and inwardly acknowledged that fortune had been
extraordinarily kind to his niece; the stranger, he thought, must be
both wealthy and generous, and such an offer was not to be despised,
though made by a humourist, and one of no very prepossessing presence.
Rose had no very high pretensions for she had but a modest dowry, which
she owed entirely to the generosity of her uncle; neither had she any
right to raise exceptions on the score of birth, for her own origin was
far from splendid, and as the other objections, Gerald resolved, and
indeed, by the usages of the time, was warranted in resolving, not to
listen to them for a moment.

"Sir" said he, addressing the stranger, "your offer is liberal, and
whatever hesitation I may feel in closing with it immediately, arises
solely from my not having the honour of knowing anything of your family
or station. Upon these points you can, of course, satisfy me without
difficulty?'

"As to my respectability," said the stranger, drily, "you must take that
for granted at present; pester me with no inquiries; you can discover
nothing more about me than I choose to make known. You shall have
sufficient security for my respectability--my word, if you are
honourable: if you are sordid, my gold."

"A testy old gentleman," thought Douw, "he must have his own way; but,
all things considered, I am not justified to declining his offer. I will
not pledge myself unnecessarily, however."

"You will not pledge yourself unnecessarily," said Vanderhausen,
strangely uttering the very words which had just floated through the
mind of his companion; "but you will do so if it is necessary, I
presume; and I will show you that I consider it indispensable. If the
gold I mean to leave in your hands satisfy you, and if you don't wish my
proposal to be at once withdrawn, you must, before I leave this room,
write your name to this engagement."

Having thus spoken, he placed a paper in the hands of the master, the
contents of which expressed an engagement entered into by Gerard Douw,
to give to Wilken Vanderhausen of Rotterdam, in marriage, Rose
Velderkaust, and so forth, within one week of the date thereof. While
the painter was employed in reading this covenant, by the light of a
twinkling oil lamp in the far wall of the room, Schalken, as we have