help me bear it, dear Otto. It will be but last, and best of all, some one was better hereafter," she added, with a gentle good enough to accuse a man of murder, smile; but yet a tear glistened in her eye just when Otto wanted such a case to as she wished him good-night.

CHAPTER IV.

BECKLEY AND ITS INHABITANTS.

bring to light his eloquence. In this trial, which all the newspapers took notice of, and which attracted the attention of the whole of the Netherlands, Otto was the defender of the accused, and brought him

And so there was.

Ir was hardly three years since Otto white as snow out of the hands of the Welters had established himself as an advocate for the prosecution, who was well advocate in his native place, and he had known and long established. already made his name known by conduct- Since that day Otto Welters might reing two or three lawsuits to a successful gard his future as assured. Clients came issue. His success, coupled with the in a stream from all quarters, and his favorable circumstances that an old advo- consultation hour was more and more cate, who had in his hands the principal attended. It was not, therefore, from the practice of the place, just at that particular rarity of the occurrence that his summons time was compelled by illness to retire, to Beckley, which he had first mentioned had destroyed the prejudice with which a at home, and then to Mary, seemed to young man who settles in his native place make so great an impression on Otto. has most frequently to contend, and There must certainly have been some .doubly so when that native place is a other reason. small town. People know that he has gone through his studies and degrees, and For more than half a year this same they hear it asserted that he is clever; but Beckley had been the favorite subject of they have seen him as a schoolboy, with Dilburg conversation-the privileged field his hoops and his marbles, and recollect, for conjectures and speculations of every as if it were but yesterday, how he was sort, which extended themselves to the running about in jacket and trousers; and most absurd impossibilities. they cannot make the recollection con- Beckley was a large estate in the immesistent with the idea of the advocate who diate neighborhood of the town, and an is to plead their cause, or the doctor who old dowager had formerly resided here; a is to cure them. It is recollection, then, year or two ago she had exchanged the which prevents a prophet from being temporal for the eternal, and her heirs, speedily honored in his own country. It who were distant relations, and by no chanced, however, that the commune of means inconsolable, found the property in Dilburg had got into a lawsuit with the a dilapidated and neglected condition. commune of Trello about a piece of land It was resolved to treat the place as a near their common boundary, and that summer residence for the members of the Otto had pleaded the cause of his native family in common. The requisite alteraplace, and won it. It chanced, also, that tions and improvements in the house and a puffed-up landed proprietor, whom no grounds were completed; but when it was one could endure, had injured the property all in order, it was found that the heirs of a poor widow by the building of a barn, had just had time to quarrel over the inand Otto's defence of the rights thus in-heritance, and to make their joint possesvaded had resulted, to the satisfaction of sion and residence undesirable and indeed very one, in the demolition of the barn ;impossible.

On a certain day when the Dilburgers signatures was reserved for their last coup. walked out of the town, a notice board It was decided, in the first place, that announced to them that Beckley was to Burgomaster Welters should pay a friendly be let or sold, with immediate possession; visit of welcome to this new member of the but this immediate possession was not community, and on this occasion should taken advantage of by any one for more plead the good old right of the town. than a year. At last, one day, a report Burgomaster Welters went. went through the town that Beckley was Fully impressed with his own dignity let. A fortnight afterwards the tenants had and with the importance of his mission, he arrived a gentleman from India with his gave his card to the old man-servant who daughter, so people told one another. Nev- opened the door, and the Burgomaster was er before had so many members of the Dil-prepared to follow him, when the man reburg beau monde walked out of the town gate as on that pleasant autumn day, when the arrival of the tenants was known.

turned with the message that Mr. Arnold begged to be excused, for he was indisposed and could receive no one.

From time immemorial the Dilburgers With his tail between his legs (to apply had enjoyed the right of walking in the this common saying with all respect to the grounds of Beckley, and its pleasant lanes good Burgomaster), he came back to the and paths had been their favorite resort, and thither they now bent their steps.

town.

But Dilburg would not allow itself to be so easily discouraged. Dominie Swart, the minister of the Reformed Church, went a few days later as ambassador extraordinary

There was a path which went so close to the house that one could peep at the inhabitants without any difficulty. During the residence of the old dowager, and her old to Beckley.

dame de compagnie, people had not used Mr. Arnold begged to be excused, was this path more than others; but without doing any injustice to the Dilburgers, I venture to state that on that day, but for an unforeseen circumstance, it would have been the most frequented of any. unforeseen circumstance, however, manifested itself in the shape of a little white The Dilburgers now sprang their last board over the locked gate, which an- mine, in the person of the old Roman Canounced in black letters, "No admission tholic priest, but with the same, or rather to the public." It was these few words that the Dilburgers read and re-read; it was these words which excited a ferment in their minds bordering on sedition, and which led them back to the town in a state of indescribable excitement.

indisposed, could receive no one, and did not belong to the Reformed congregation.

Now went the Lutheran minister, and the like formula was made use of, with the This addition that Mr. Arnold did not belong to the Lutheran congregation.

This right of way for pedestrians was the incontestable right of the Dilburgers. This right of way must and should be restored, and every inhabitant should co-operate towards this object to the utmost of his power.

without any result. Mr. Arnold did not belong to the Catholic Church, was indisposed, begged to be excused, but could receive no one.

Dilburg, to speak figuratively, sat with her hands in her hair.

There was now nothing left but to launch the intended address, with more than two hundred signatures; but, to the indescribable wrath of the Dilburgers, only half an hour later the address was sent back to the town hall, and with only this word on the

The plan of an address with a hundred margin, "Declined."

By the few thousand tongues which were that no one will be surprised that the sumat the service of the town, the unknown mons of Otto Welters to the much discussed resident at Beckley was henceforth cursed Beckley became an interesting affair to and dragged through the dirt. That he everybody. was a heathen, that he had strange things on his conscience which made him shun when Otto left his lodgings, and walked people, were but trifling specimens of the absurdities which people told to one another.

It was eleven o'clock in the morning

out of the town gate to obey the summons, and hardly ten minutes later he stood upon the dyke which formed the high road, But even this much was hardly known and from which the Beckley estate lay bewith certainty, that Mr. Arnold had been fore him as in a hollow. The meadows a resident in Java-(“A resident there is and woods were below him, and the brook the same as a slave-owner," said the grocer's which flowed round the house, making alwife to her neighbor at the ironmonger's most an island of the knoll on which it was shop); that the old man who opened the built. door came from Rotterdam; and that, be

There was something picturesque in the sides these, the resident at Beckley had house with its bright terrace, where the brought with him, what people in Dilburg flower-beds, glowing in the sunlight, discalled a couple of black servants. Of the played to the admiring eye a glittering daughter, people only knew that she was of chequer of beautiful colors. There was dark complexion, and that very early in the something picturesque also in the house morning she had been once seen by an itself, with the light yellow tint of its walls early riser who was taking his morning and pillars contrasting strongly with the walk, riding on a beautiful white horse, dark-green background of the knoll crowned but she rushed by him in so wild a gallop with high trees, and with the darker yellow that he had not time sufficiently to observe jalousies, which were all closed to keep her. out the warm June sun.

Otto paused an instant to look at the view before he opened the great iron en

People knew, further, that a celebrated physician from the capital made visits to Beckley, which were regularly repeated trance-gate. Slowly he walked along the every five or six weeks. This was all that they knew for certain, except that Mr. Arnold had returned the visit of the Burgomaster by sending his card.

crisp gravel walk, recognizing right and left the old well-known paths, which in the trim neatness of careful keeping up had never appeared to him so pretty as now, But however interesting a subject of con- and seemed doubly beautiful as a Paradise versation may be, there comes a time when, Lost. The bell gave a clear, heavy sound from want of material, it will be exhausted; when Otto rang it, and almost immediately and such was the case in Dilburg with re- the door was opened by the old servant, spect to Beckley and its inhabitants. When who was already so well known in Dilburg six months had elasped without people by his messages of refusal.

knowing more than they did on the first "Is Mr. Arnold at home?" asked Otto, day, and when the hope of again opening while preparing to hand in his card-an the right of way seemed to have disappeared act rendered superfluous by the servant for good, people at last considered the saying, 'My master expects you; be so matter as a fait accompli, and almost ceased good as to follow me."

to think or talk about it. Under all these

Otto followed him along a broad marble circumstances, however, it seems to me passage, leading quite through the house

"Youth is a fault which diminishes every day," said Otto to Mr. Arnold, laughing.

to a door of colored glass, which admit- however, I pictured to myself the advocate ted a view of landscape behind the house as a man of middle age; and hence my in fantastic colors. In the middle of the surprise now I meet a young man." passage was a side staircase, which they went up, and having walked through a long gallery up-stairs, the servant took hold of the handle of a door. "Mr. Welters, I be- "As far as that goes, I wish it could be lieve?" he asked, stopping for a moment. made a reproach to myself," answered Mr. On Otto's assenting, he opened the door Arnold. "But take a seat, Mr. Welters. and ushered him in, giving his name I am aware that your time is valuable, and loudly. Otto walked into the room. It I will therefore at once make you acquainted was a large, lofty apartment; the half- in a few words with the nature of the subclosed blinds spread an agreeable softly ject on which I wish to call in your advice tempered light compared with the glaring and assistance." sunlight outside. Large wide bookcases Getting up he took a parcel of papers covered the three walls where there were no from his writing-table and placed them by windows, and by one of the windows stood him. Otto watched him in all his movea large writing-table, at which a gentleman ments with involuntary wonder. His time was sitting, who got up at Otto's entrance, had been too fully occupied with pressing and came forward a few steps to meet him. business to allow of his indulging in conHe was a man of middle height, with a jectures respecting the personnel of the resipeculiar sun-burnt complexion, indicating dent at Beckley, as most of the Dilburgers a long residence in tropical climates; but had done; but unconsciously, and owing in him this tint was moreover blended with to the arbitrary conclusions of Dilburg socia sickly yellow, which had even spread ety, a certain portrait of misanthropy, or at into the whites of his eyes. One would all events of singularity, not at all resem

have given him fifty years of age at a guess, with his dark hair and beard mingled with gray, and it was a lean, bony hand which he held out to Otto.

"I must make my excuses, Mr. Welters, for having requested you to take the trouble of coming to me. . . . But I beg your pardon" he interrupted himself while he looked at Otto with some surprise-"have I the pleasure of seeing Advocate Welters ?" Otto assured him that he was the man in question.

Nei

bling Mr. Arnold as he stood before him,
had become fixed in his imagination.
ther in his exterior nor in his manner was he
different from the ordinary type of a gentle-
man, with a calm, serious face, and a smile
upon his lips which gave something half-
sarcastic, half-melancholy to the expression
of his countenance.

But, whatever might be Otto's meditations on this subject, they were broken off by the attention he had to bestow on the words of Mr. Arnold when he began to speak.

"This is the difference then, between imagination and reality," said Mr. Arnold, "I must begin by telling you, Mr. smiling. "I have learnt to know you Welters, that a short time ago I read in from your defence of that murderer Dig- the newspaper that somewhere in North gers, whom you so cleverly got acquitted Brabant-I think at Leeuwenberg Housefrom the charge against him, although for an old gentleman died who by his will my part I am convinced that the fellow bequeathed his immense wealth to the was guilty; but I have not admired your person who should be able to prove that talent less on that account. In my thoughts, he had descended in the direct line from

the well-known Martin van Rossom, with hope your claim can be proved; it shall whom he thought he was connected. I not be my fault if it is not, of that you read it without paying much attention to may be quite sure." it; but a day or two ago, when accident- Otto took up the papers, and, turning ally rummaging through old papers, I them slowly over, he asked for some infound a letter from my grandfather to my formation, which Mr. Arnold gave him. mother, in which he speaks of this Martin At last Otto packed everything in a large van Rossom as the ancestor of my family. parcel, and while he was thus occupied, I immediately looked up all the family he asked, "Do you like your residence at papers in my possession, and I wish to Beckley, Mr. Arnold ?" know from you what appears to be want- "I like being at Beckley as well as ing in these papers, and in what terms the anywhere else in Holland. That means claim to this inheritance can be made. not very much. I am an old retired As regards the money, all men are avari-Indian, Mr. Welters, and more attached cious; therefore I suppose you may consider to Java, where I have spent such a great me avaricious, Mr. Welters. I have, part of my life, than I can tell you; but Heaven be praised, more than I require; when the doctors say, Go to Holland, but if I now saw the chance of acquiring man, or we shall bury you here in six a few pretty millions for my daughter, I months," then one has little choice. A should not like this chance to slip through sick resident is not worth much, but a my fingers." dead one still less."

"And you would be very foolish if you did," answered Otto. "Did not Martin van Rossom live in the fifteenth century?" Yes; but you also find him men

"And have you found the good effects of your native climate ?" said Otto.

Yes, in so far as it's a question of prolonging life, not of restoration of health, tioned in the beginning of the sixteenth I do find its good effects." century. I hit upon this in the history of

He was silent a few moments; then, as

my country, and I remarked that, if it if inspired by a thought, he went on with were not for the inheritance, we should considerable animationrather decline having such an ancestor. "I wish to live long enough to gather He amassed his riches by plundering, the fruits of my twenty years' labor, and to murdering and robbing; but freebootery see the work on Java, which I have underseemed then to be a well-received occupa- taken, in print; I am ready then to lay tion, and it may always be a question, my head down and let others complete even now, whether that money was not as what I have begun. I don't know, Mr. honorably earned as that acquired by Welters, whether you feel any interest in many traders and speculators on the Stock the condition of the colonies. There are, Exchange in the present time. At all I believe, very few Dutchmen who take events, it is sufficiently purified by the the interest in it that it deserves. centuries which have now passed to prevent every year the millions come over which one from feeling any scruples about it. I are to strengthen our exchequer, people wish, therefore, to ask you to be good seldom ask in what manner they are obenough to peruse these papers in any time at your disposal, and to communicate to me, when you have arrived at it, the result of your investigation."

66

As

tained, and do not think of the condition of those by whose labor the millions are provided. The malpractices at the expense of the poor Javanese, which cling With pleasure, Mr. Arnold, and I like stains to the money, are matters of