ejuffrouw, I
must ask you to descend from this sleigh. It has been a vastly
uncomfortable vehicle for you to travel in, I fear me, but it was the
best that we could get in Haarlem on New Year's day. An you will deign
to enter this humble hostelry you will find the mevrouw there, a
moderately good supper and something resembling a bed, all of which I am
thinking will be highly acceptable to you."

While the enemy spoke, Gilda had a few seconds in which to reflect.
Above all things she was a woman of sense and one who valued her own
dignity; she knew quite well that the making of a scene outside an inn
in a strange town and at this hour of the night could but result in a
loss of that dignity which she so highly prized, seeing that she was
entirely at the mercy of men who were not likely to yield either to her
protests or to her appeals.

Therefore, when she felt that she was free to move, she made every
effort to raise herself; uncomfortably these long hours of weary
motionless lying on her back, had made her limbs so numb that they
refused her service. She made one or two brave attempts to hide her
helplessness, but when she wanted to draw up her knees, she nearly cried
with the pain of trying to move them out of their cramped position.

"It were wiser methinks," quoth the enemy with a slight tone of mockery
in his cheerful voice, "it were wiser to accept the help of my arms.
They are strong, firm and not cramped. Try them, mejuffrouw, you will
have no cause to regret it."

Quite involuntarily--for of a truth she shrank from the mere touch of
this rascal who obviously was in the pay of Stoutenburg, and doing the
latter's infamous work for him--quite involuntarily then, she placed her
hand upon the arm which he had put out as a prop for her.

It was as firm as a rock. Leaning on it somewhat heavily she was able to
struggle to her knees. This made her venturesome. She tried to stand up;
but fatigue, the want of food, the excitement and anxiety which she had
endured, combined with the fact that she had been in a recumbent
position for many hours, caused her to turn desperately giddy. She
swayed like a young sapling under the wind, and would have fallen but
that the same strong arm firm as a rock was there to receive her ere she
fell.

I suppose that dizziness deprived her of her full senses, else she would
never have allowed that knave to lift her out of the sledge and then to
carry her into a building, and up some