the bill, and "pronounced it a d----
bad dinner and d---- dear!" Probably the place, therefore, is extinct;
for happily the double pronouncement can nowadays be seldom applied to
any of the restaurants mentioned in this chapter.

H.L.

CHAPTER V

HOLLAND

Restaurants at the Hague--Amsterdam--Scheveningen--Rotterdam--The
food of the people.

The Hague

At the Hague, the capital, the best restaurant is Van der Pyl's, in the
centre of the town, situated on the Plaats, where the cuisine is French
and excellent, and where there are admirable wines in the cellar. A good
set luncheon is served at this restaurant for the very moderate price of
one florin (1s. 8d.); but it is wise to order dinner _a la carte_, and
to give them some hours' notice. The manager is M. Anjema. It is
advisable to secure a table near the window, especially in summer. Some
of the best wines are not put on the wine-list.

In former years the proprietor of Van der Pyl's was possessed of a
puritanical conscience, and would not allow any two people to dine alone
in his private salons. So strictly did he adhere to his rule on this
subject, that when a well-known man-about-town insisted on his right to
dine in the _petit salon_ alone with his wife, the inexorable proprietor
turned him out of the restaurant. There was, however, another well-known
member of Hague society who succeeded where the gentleman who thought
that matrimony overrode all rules had failed. The hero of the little
story had made a bet that, in spite of the puritanical proprietor, he
would dine _a deux_ with a lady in the _petit salon_. He won his bet by
subtlety. He ordered a dinner for three, and when he and the lady
arrived they waited a quarter of an hour for the other imaginary guest.
Then, remarking that he was sure Mr. X. would not mind the dinner being
begun without him, the host ordered the soup to be brought up; and so,
with constant allusions to the man that never came, the dinner was
served, course by course, and the bet won before the proprietor had the
least idea that a trick had been played upon him.

A somewhat similar story, it will be remembered, is told of Delmonico's
and its proprietor in the early history of that great New York
restaurant. In the American story, the youth who had dined in a _cabinet
particulier_ with a lady, in contravention of the rules of the house,
had not the sense to hold his tongue until after he had paid his bill.
When