, after we'd driven about from the
region of big shops and imposing arcades, to shady streets mirroring
brown mansions in glassy canals; on to toy villages of miniature painted
houses, standing in flowery gardens, far below the level of adjacent
ponds adorned with flower-islands; through large parks and intricate
plantations; past solemnly flapping windmills; far beyond, to meadows
where black and white cows recognized the fact that we were not Dutch
and despised us for it; then back to parks and gardens again. "I
shouldn't think there could be any sort of characteristic thing left
which we haven't met with. I'm sure I could go home now and talk
intelligently about Holland."

We couldn't help being interested in everything, though we were seeing
it against our wills; yet it was a relief to our feelings when the Back
unbent to the extent of stopping before an old-fashioned, low-built
hotel, close to a park. So far as we could judge, it was miles from
anywhere, and had no connection with anything else; but we were too
thankful for the privilege of stopping, to be critical. The house had an
air of quiet rectitude which appealed to Phil, and without a word she
allowed our luggage to be taken off the cab.

When we came to pay, it appeared that our driver hadn't made us
acquainted with every secret of Rotterdam, purely in a spirit of
generosity. We were called upon to part with almost all the gulden we
had got in exchange for shillings on board the boat, and Phil looked
volumes as it dawned on her intelligence that each one of these coins
(with the head of an incredibly mild and whiskered old gentleman upon
it) was worth one and eightpence.

[Illustration: _We were called upon to part with almost all the gulden_]

"At this rate we shall soon be in the poorhouse," she said.

"If it comes to that, we can stop the motor-boat at villages and solicit
alms," I suggested.

After all, the Back had had some method in its madness, for on showing
the caretaker's address to a giant hall-porter, it appeared that the
place was within ten minutes' walk of the hotel. We refused to decide
upon rooms until our future plans had shaped themselves; and our luggage
reposed in the hall while we had cups of tea and a Dutch conception of
toast in a garden, whose charms we shared with a rakish wandering Jew of
a tortoise.

Many times since I induced Phyllis to join me in becoming an
adventuress, have we vaguely arranged what we would do on arr