The comparison made Clement groan; and yet that canal journey had a
pensive joy about it, as we sat beside our sleeping brother and
conversed freely and fearlessly, as we had never been able to do for
ten minutes together in all the long years that we had loved one
another. There was something very sweet in the knowing that, exile
as he was, he and I must be all the world to one another. And so
indeed it has been. After our stormy beginning, our life has been
well-nigh like our voyage on that smooth Dutch stream.
However, the sorrows were not yet over, although at that time we
trusted that there would be healing for my dear brother in the very
air of the Hague. We landed on a fine August evening, and were at
once recognized by some of the English gentlemen who had little to do
but to loiter about the quays and see the barges come in. It
rejoiced my heart to hear my brother called Lord Walwyn again,
instead of by his French title. Yet therewith, it was a shock to see
how changed they thought him since he had left them a year before;
but they vied with one another in helping us, and we were soon housed
in good lodgings. I knew what Eustace most wished to learn, and
asked, with as good an air of indifference as I could assume, whether
Vrow van Hunker were in the town. 'Vrow van Hunker, the Providence
of the Cavaliers?' asked one. 'No; she is at her country-house,
where she hath taken in there or four poor starving ladies and
parsons with their families.
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