, pale face, even love wasn't strong enough to save her. The
chauffeur, poor fellow, thought there was no flower in the garden of
girls as sweet as his white snowdrop. He felt, if he could only afford
to buy a lighter for himself, they might marry, and the bride's life
might be saved. But it was out of the question, and perhaps the idyl
would have ended in tragedy, had he not confided his troubles to his
master. That master, as it happened, had a lighter which he'd fitted up
with a motor. He'd used it all summer, and got his money's worth of fun
out of it; so when he heard the story, he told the chauffeur he would
give him the thing as it stood, for a wedding present, and it must be
rechristened 'Anna Maria.'

"What a lamb of a master! I quite love him!" exclaimed Miss Van Buren,
before she remembered that she was talking to One beyond the Pale.

"There wasn't much merit; he was tired of his toy," I answered
carelessly; but I felt my face grow red.

"I don't believe it a bit. He just said that," cried Miss Rivers. "I
should love him too. Is he a Dutchman?"

"I shouldn't be surprised if he was half English, half Dutch," remarked
Starr, good-naturedly.

"Or if he was making our wheel go round now," finished Aunt Fay, pulling
Tibe's ear.

"Oh!" said Miss Van Buren, and buried her nose in the map.

She and Starr were tracing, or pretending to trace, our route to Gouda,
whither we were going, and where we expected to lunch. Hurriedly she
threw herself into a discussion with him as to whether we were now in
the Lek or the Maas. Reason said Maas, but the map said Lek, though it
was a thing, thought the lady, about which there could be no two
opinions; it must be one or the other.

As a matter of fact, there are many opinions, and as I knew the history
of the dispute, after all she had to turn to me, and listen. I talked to
Starr, and at her, explaining how only experts could tell one river from
another here, and even experts differed.

"Our waters are split up into so many channels that they're as difficult
to separate one from the other as the twisted strands in a plait of
hair," said I. "It was like Napoleon's colossal cheek, wasn't it, to
claim the Netherlands for France, because they were formed from the
alluvium of French rivers?"

Instantly the Chaperon ceased to admire Tibe's new and expensive collar,
and opened a silver chain bag, also glittering with newness, which she
had in her lap. From this she brought