"As to my respectability," said the stranger, drily, "you must take that
for granted at present; pester me with no inquiries; you can discover
nothing more about me than I choose to make known. You shall have
sufficient security for my respectability--my word, if you are
honourable: if you are sordid, my gold."

"A testy old gentleman," thought Douw, "he must have his own way; but,
all things considered, I am not justified to declining his offer. I will
not pledge myself unnecessarily, however."

"You will not pledge yourself unnecessarily," said Vanderhausen,
strangely uttering the very words which had just floated through the
mind of his companion; "but you will do so if it is necessary, I
presume; and I will show you that I consider it indispensable. If the
gold I mean to leave in your hands satisfy you, and if you don't wish my
proposal to be at once withdrawn, you must, before I leave this room,
write your name to this engagement."

Having thus spoken, he placed a paper in the hands of the master, the
contents of which expressed an engagement entered into by Gerard Douw,
to give to Wilken Vanderhausen of Rotterdam, in marriage, Rose
Velderkaust, and so forth, within one week of the date thereof. While
the painter was employed in reading this covenant, by the light of a
twinkling oil lamp in the far wall of the room, Schalken, as we have
stated, entered the studio, and having delivered the box and the
valuation of the Jew, into the hands of the stranger, he was about to
retire, when Vanderhausen called to him to wait; and, presenting the
case and the certificate to Gerard Douw, he paused in silence until he
had satisfied himself, by an inspection of both, respecting the value of
the pledge left in his hands. At length he said----