less awkward for you."

So, as flight was impossible, for he held her by the foot, and an
instinct told her that, especially to the man she loved, the only thing
to do was to make light of the affair, Lysbeth said--

"Dirk, Cousin Dirk, I think you know--this is--the Honourable Captain
the Count Juan de Montalvo."

"Ah! it is the Senor van Goorl," said Montalvo, pulling off the skate
and rising from his knee, which, from his excess of courtesy, was now
wet through. "Senor, allow me to return to you, safe and sound, the fair
lady of whom I have robbed you for a while."

"For a while, captain," blurted Dirk; "why, from first to last, she
has been gone nearly four hours, and a fine state we have been in about
her."

"That will all be explained presently, Senor--at supper, to which the
Jufvrouw has been so courteous as to ask me," then, aside and below his
breath, again the ominous word of reminder--"_pays_." "Most happily,
your cousin's presence was the means of saving a fellow-creature's life.
But, as I have said, the tale is long. Senor--permit," and in another
second Lysbeth found herself walking down her own hall upon the arm of
the Spaniard, while Dirk, her aunt, and some guests followed obediently
behind.

Now Montalvo knew that his difficulties were over for that evening at
any rate, since he had crossed the threshold and was a guest.