ng.

It was a long dinner, with many courses, such as Dutchmen love; still,
when we finished, daylight lingered. In the fantastic square with its
crowding varieties of capricious Dutch architecture, the cathedral was
cut black and sharp out of a sky of beaten gold, and Coster's statue
wore a glittering halo. Under their archways of green, the canals were
on fire with sunset, their flames quenched in the thick moss which
clothed their walls; the red-brown color of paved streets, and the
houses with their pointed facades in many steps, burned also, as if they
were made of rose-and-purple porphyry instead of common bricks, while
each pane of each window blazed like a separate gem.

It was a good ending to a good day, and though I had accomplished
nothing definite, I was happy.

Next morning I had the car ready early, and took every one for a spin
through the Hout, which reminded them of the Bois, or what the Bois
would be if pretty houses were scattered over it like fallen leaves.

We stopped in Haarlem after that last spin only long enough to do
reverence to Franz Hals, and the collection of his work which is the
immediate jewel of the city's soul.

[Illustration: _We stopped at Haarlem only long enough to do reverence
to Franz Hals_]

It was pretty to watch Nell scraping acquaintance with the bold,
good-humored officers and archers, and bland municipal magnates whom
Hals has made to live on canvas. She looked the big, stalwart fellows in
the eye, but half shyly, as a girl regards a man to whom she thinks, yet
is not quite sure, she ought to bow.

"Why, their faces are familiar. I seem to have known them," I heard her
murmur, and ventured an explanation of the mystery, over her shoulder.

"You do know them," I said. "Their eyes are using the eyes of their
descendants for windows, every day in the streets. Holland isn't making
new types."

She turned to look me up and down, with a flicker of long lashes. Then
she sighed----

"What a pity!"

Perhaps I deserved it, for I had brought it on myself. Nevertheless,
sweet Phyllis pitied me.

"What surprise have you got for us next, Sir Skipper?" she asked
brightly. "Mr. Starr says that no day will be complete without a
surprise from you; and we depend upon you for our route as part of the
surprise."

"I thought Mr. Starr was making out our route," remarked Nell to a tall
archer of Franz Hals.

"If I've contrived to create that impression, I've been clever," said