he part of a gentleman. Until then, sir, I bid you good-night. The
hour is late and Mynheer Beek is desirous of closing this abode of
pleasure. As for me, my lodgings being paid for I do not care to leave
them unoccupied."

Whereupon he rose and to Mynheer Beek--who came to him with that same
ubiquitous smile which did duty for all the customers of the "Lame
Cow"--he threw the three silver guilders which the latter demanded in
payment for the wine and ale supplied to the honourable gentleman: then
as he met the mocking glance of his former interlocutor he said with a
recrudescence of gaiety:

"I still have my lodgings, gentle sir, and need not sell my soul or my
skin until after I have felt a gnawing desire for breakfast."

With a graceful flourish of his plumed hat he bowed to the assembled
company and walked out of the tap-room of the "Lame Cow" with swagger
that would have befitted the audience chamber of a king.

In his wake followed the band of his boon companions, they too strode
out of the place with much jingle of steel and loud clatter of heavy
boots and accoutrements. They laughed and talked loudly as they left and
gesticulated with an air of independence which once more drew upon them
the wrathful looks and contemptuous shrugs of the sober townsfolk.

Diogenes alone as he finally turned once again in the doorway
encountered many a timid glance levelled at him that were soft and
kindly. These glances came from the women, from the young and from the
old, for women are strange creatures of whims and of fancies, and there
was something in the swaggering insolence of that young malapert that
made them think of breezy days upon the sea-shore, of the song of the
soaring lark, of hyacinths in bloom and the young larches on the edge of
the wood.

And I imagine that their sluggish Dutch blood yielded to these
influences and was greatly stirred by memories of youth.

CHAPTER VIII

THE LODGINGS WHICH WERE PAID FOR

And once again Chance set to with a will and forged yet another link in
that mighty chain which she had in hand.

For was it not in the natural course of things that the three
philosophers, weary and thirsty as they were, should go and seek solace
and material comfort under the pleasing roof of the "Lame Cow"--which as
I remarked before was reputed one of the best conducted hostelries in
Haarlem, and possessing a cellar full of wines and ales which had not
its equal even in Amsterdam.

An