all,
for he always broke out anew, now with jests, now with the most fearful
adjurations. Since then I have never spoken a word to him, nor let him
in when he knocked at my door, and in the street I always got out of
the way so speedily, that he could have no hope at all. And then what
does he go and do? Out of revenge and wickedness he puts me as it were
in the pillory, so that every one may point their finger at me, and I
no longer dare look up in the presence of respectable women. Oh, what
men are! And I had thought that he, at least, was an exception, because
he did not prate, and had a kind of appearance which was not likely to
lead any one into folly and shame for his sake. Now I have had to pay
for my stupid confidence by the misery of my whole life.'

"Then again she burst into tears.

"I now attempted to comfort her, and also to defend my friend Jan, by
representing to her that painters think very differently on these
matters to what ladies do; that he had most certainly not done it out
of revenge; and that she could lose nothing in the eyes of any rational
beings if this picture--like all the rest of Van Kuylen's--were
destined for the gallery of some Amsterdam merchant, who knew as little
of the existence of 'the fair Kate,' as she did of his.

"But it was all in vain. With the active imagination of all
self-torturers, she pictured to herself that the picture might be
engraved or lithographed, and then hung up in the windows of all the
print-shops, and in all the public-rooms of the hotels along the Rhine,
and that then everybody would say, 'Only see what our coy little
schoolmaster's daughter has come to! A pretty face may lead a person
great lengths indeed!' and what would her parents and sisters think of
her--and suppose that such a print ever got as far as America, and came
one day to the eyes of Hans Lutz. No, no, she would much rather--having
rendered herself unrecognizable so far as she could--leap into the
Isar, than day and night imagine such fearful things.

"'Do you know what?' said I at length. 'All these desperate
lamentations and resolutions have no practical sense in them, and do
not lead us any nearer the goal that you wish to reach--the nullifying
as much as possible the mischief done. Be reasonable, Miss Kate, and
accompany me at once to our common friend, who has certainly no idea
how evil-disposed you are towards him. There you can at all events
obtain a written assurance from him that