cognized the woman who had spoken to him last night after the affray,
in the Dam Straat, his face in no sense expressed surprise, it still
smiled and mocked and twinkled, and neither of the two men who stood by
guessed that he had seen the original of this dainty picture under
peculiar circumstances not many hours before.

That portrait of Jongejuffrouw Beresteyn is one of the finest ever
painted by Frans Hals, the intense naturalness of the pose is perfect,
the sweet yet imperious expression of the face is most faithfully
portrayed. Diogenes saw her now very much as he had seen her last night,
for the artist had painted the young head against a dark background and
it stood out delicate as a flower, right out of the canvas and in full
light.

The mouth smiled as it had done last night when first she caught sight
of the ludicrous apparition of one philosopher astride on the shoulders
of the other, the eyes looked grave as they had done when she humbly,
yet gracefully begged pardon for her levity. The chin was uplifted as it
had been last night, when she made with haughty condescension her offers
of patronage to the penniless adventurer, and there was the little hand
soft and smooth as the petal of a rose which had rested for one moment
against his lips.

And looking on the picture of this young girl, Diogenes remembered the
words which her own brother had spoken to him only a few moments ago;
"her honour and her safety are forfeit to me. I would kill you if you
cheated me, but I would not even then regret what I had done."

The daughter of the rich city burgher was, of course, less than nothing
to the nameless carver of his own fortunes; she was as far removed from
his sphere of life as were the stars from the Zuyder Zee, nor did women
as a sex play any serious part in his schemes for the future, but at the
recollection of those callous and selfish words, Diogenes felt a wave of
fury rushing through his blood; the same rage seized his temper now as
when he saw a lout once plucking out the feathers of a song bird, and he
fell on him with fists and stick and left him lying bruised and
half-dead in a ditch.

But the hard lesson learned early in life stood him in good stead. He
crossed his arms over his broad chest and anon his well-shaped hand
went up to his moustache and it almost seemed as if the slender fingers
smoothed away the traces of that wave of wrath which had swept over him
so unaccountably just now, and onl