e different in the seventeenth century," said Miss
Rivers, looking at me, as if I stood to represent my people.

"And the English don't seem the kind to have lost their heads over a
South Sea Bubble, but they did," retorted Nell, as if she were defending
us.

They liked the houses along the river-side, houses big and little, which
look as if the front and back walls of their lower stories had been
knocked out, and the space filled in with glass. They were amused by the
rounded awnings over the balconies, which Nell likened to the covers of
giant babies' perambulators; and they laughed at the black-painted doors
picked out with lines of pale green, which contrasted with a whitewashed
facade.

At Haarlem I had another surprise for them, which I arranged before
leaving Rotterdam. It was one which would cost nothing in trouble,
little enough in money, and would give pleasure to everybody--except to
my chauffeur, who is in love with my mother's French maid, and no doubt
was reveling in the thought of a long holiday at Liliendaal.

When I'd brought "Lorelei" through the bridge, and hove her to by the
broad quay, there stood close at hand a handsome, dark-blue motor-car.

"What a beauty!" exclaimed Nell. "That's much grander than Robert's."
Then she glanced at me. "I beg your pardon," said she, demurely. "I'm
afraid the car my cousin has is yours."

"So is this," said I.

"Dear me, what is It doing here?" she demanded, sorry to have praised a
possession of the enemy's.

"It's waiting to take you round Haarlem," I replied. "I thought it would
be a nice way for you to see the place, as the suburbs are its
speciality, so to speak, and motoring saves time."

"You're a queer chap, Alb," remarked the Mariner. "You have such a way
of keeping things up your sleeve, and springing them on one. You ought
to be called 'William the Silent.'"

"Why, that's what he is called, didn't you know? Mr. van Buren told us,"
exclaimed Phyllis, and ended up her sentence with a stifled shriek which
could have meant nothing but a surreptitious pinch.

I would not have glanced at either of the girls for anything; but I
would have given something to know how Nell was looking.

"Have you any more belongings here?" asked the Chaperon, gaily. "Such as
an ancestral castle, where you could give us another surprise feast?"

I laughed. "As a matter of fact, I have an ancestral castle in the
neighborhood. It isn't mine, but it was my ancestors', an