Miss Mordaunt was kind enough to comply literally, both curtsying and
smiling precisely as she had been desired to do, though I could see she was
also slightly disposed to laugh. I was still making my bow, and mumbling
some unintelligible compliment, when Katrinke gave a little exclamation,
and using the freedom of an old and confidential servant, she eagerly
pulled the sleeve of her young mistress, and hurriedly whispered something
in her ear. Anneke coloured, turned quickly towards me, bent her eyes more
boldly and steadily on my face--and then it was that I fancied the sweetest
smile which mortal had ever received, or that with which I had just before
been received, was much surpassed.

"Mr. Littlepage, I believe, is not a total stranger, cousin Dirck," she
said. "Katrinke remembers him, as a young gentleman who once did me an
important service, and now I think I can trace the resemblance myself! I
allude to the boy who insulted me on the Bowery Road, Mr. Littlepage, and
your handsome interference in my behalf."

"Had there been twenty boys, Miss Mordaunt, an insult to _you_ would have
been resented by any man of ordinary spirit."

I do not know that any youth, who was suddenly put to his wits to be
polite, or sentimental, or feeling, could have done a great deal better
than _that_! So Anneke thought too, I fancy, for her colour increased,
rendering her ravishingly lovely, and she looked surprisingly pleased.

"Yes," put in Dirck with energy,--"let twenty, or a hundred try it if they
please, Anneke, men or boys, and they'll find those that will protect you."

"You for one, of course, cousin Dirck," rejoined the charming girl, holding