But this statement is, as are the
majority of such assertions, open to contradiction. The Ryfylke bears
no sort of resemblance, save that they are both incomparably grand, to
the Hardanger, or the Fjaerlands to the Gieranger. There is, of
course, the same solemnity and the same overwhelming sense of man's
insignificance about them all. But in every other essential they
differ as completely as Windermere does from the Bitter Lakes of
Suez--shall we say?--or the Marble Arch from the Bridge of Sighs.

"Knowing what we know, and seeing what we see," Maas remarked
confidentially to the Duchess of Matlock as they sat in their chairs on
deck, gazing up at the snow-capped mountains at the head of the fjord,
"one is tempted to believe that Providence, in designing Europe, laid
it out with the express intention of pleasing the British tourist."

"I detest tourists," replied her Grace, as she disentangled the straps
of her field-glasses. "They cheapen everything, and think nothing of
discussing their hotel bills in the Temple of the Sphinx, or of
comparing and grumbling at their _dhobie's_ accounts under the facade
of the Taj Mahal."

"The inevitable result of a hothouse education, my dear Duchess," said
Jimmy Foote, who was leaning against the bulwarks. "Believe a poor man
who knows, it is just those three annas overcharge in a _dhobie's_ bill
that spoil the grandeur of the Sphinx and cast a blight over the Great
Pyramid; as far as I am personally concerned, such an imposition would
spoil even the Moti Masjid itself."

"People who quarrel over a few annas have no right to travel," remarked
Mrs. Dobson, with the authority of a woman who rejoices in the
possession of a large income.

"In that case, one trembles to think what would become of the greater
portion of mankind," continued Miss Verney, who was drawing on her
gloves preparatory to going ashore.

"If that were the law, I am afraid I should never get beyond the white
walls of Old England," said Jimmy Foote, shaking his head; "it is only
by keeping a sharp eye on the three annas of which we have been
speaking that I manage to exist at all. If I might make a suggestion
to the powers that be, it would be to the effect that a university
should be founded in some convenient centre--Vienna, for instance. It
would be properly endowed, and students might be sent to it from all
parts of the world. Competent professors would be engaged, who would
teach the pupils how