was wearing one of those comely straw hats trimmed with roses which
we call Early Victorian, and which the hot summer of 1904 brought
into fashion again on account of their peculiar suitability to keep
off the sun. In England we think them becoming; upon certain heads
they are charming. But no head must wear such a hat at Gorcum unless
it would court disaster. The town is gay and spruce, bright as a new
pin; the people are outrageous. I suppose that the hat turned down at
the precise point at which, according to Gorcum's canons of taste,
it should have turned up. Whatever it did was unpardonable, and
we had to be informed of the solecism. We were informed in various
ways; the men whistled, the women sniggered, the girls laughed, the
children shouted and ran beside us. The same hat had been disregarded
by the sweet-mannered friendly Middelburgians; it had raised no smile
at Breda. At Dordrecht, it is true, eyes had been opened wide; at
Bergen-op-Zoom mouths had opened too; but such attention was nothing
compared with Gorcum's pains to make two strangers uncomfortable.

As it happened, we had philosophy, and the discomfort was very
slight. Indeed, after a while, as we ran the gauntlet to the station,
annoyance gave way to interest. We found ourselves looking ahead for
distant wayfarers who had not yet tasted the rare joy which rippled
like a ship's wake behind us. We waited for the ecstatic moment when
their faces should light with the joke. Sometimes a mother standing
at the door would see us and call to her family to come--and come
quickly, if they would not be disappointed! Women, lurking behind
Holland's blue gauze blinds, would be seen to break away with a hasty
summoning movement. Children down side streets who had just realised
their exceptional fortune would be heard shouting the glad tidings to
their friends. The porter who wheeled our luggage was stopped again
and again to answer questions concerning his fantastic employers.

In course of time--it is a long way to the station--we grew to feel
a shade of pique if any one passed us and took no notice. To bulk
so hugely in the public eye became a new pleasure. I had not known
before what Britannia must feel like on the summit of the largest of
the cars in a circus procession.

I am convinced that such costly and equivocal success as the
British arms achieved over the Boers had nothing to do with Gorcum's
feelings. The town's aesthetic ideals were honestly outrage