I try to keep watch over my temper always, and I hope it isn't too bad;
yet I'm certain that in Jonkheer Brederode's place I couldn't have
endured Nell's behavior, but would have stopped being skipper the second
day out, even if I left a whole party of inoffensive people stranded.
Instead of leaving us in the lurch after undertaking to act as skipper,
however, he has worked for us like a Trojan. Not only has he been
skipper, but guide, philosopher and friend--to say nothing of chauffeur
on shore, and "general provider" of motor-cars, carriages,
surprise-dinners, flowers, and fruit on board the boat.

The trip would have been comparatively tame, if it hadn't been for him,
as none of the rest of us know anything about Holland, and he knows
everything. No trouble has seemed too much for him, if it could add in
any way to our happiness; and I thought it was all for Nell.

He looked at her so wistfully sometimes, and such a dark red came up to
his forehead when she said anything particularly sarcastic or snubbing,
that even if he deserved it I couldn't bear to see him treated so, while
he was doing everything for our pleasure. So I tried to be nice to him,
just as I have to Mr. van Buren; and, oddly enough, both times with the
same motive--to make up for Nell's naughtiness.

I could see that the Jonkheer was grateful, and liked me a little; but
the night Mr. van Buren met us at Volendam so unexpectedly Lady
MacNairne gave Nell and me both quite a shock. She said she had it on
very _good authority_ that it was entirely a mistake about Jonkheer
Brederode being in love with Nell. Perhaps he had wished to blind people
by making them think so, but it was really for _my_ sake he had
suggested to his friend, Mr. Starr, that he should be skipper of
"Lorelei."

"I won't go so far as to say," Lady MacNairne went on, "that he's
actually in love with Phyllis" (she calls us "Phyllis" and "Nell" now),
"but he was so much taken that he wished to make her acquaintance. At
present it entirely rests with Phyllis whether he goes on to fall in
love or stops at admiration."

She said this before Nell; and although Nell has behaved so hatefully to
him (except for the last three or four days, when she has been nicer),
she didn't look as much relieved as I should in her place. She went very
pink, and then very pale, with anger at Lady MacNairne for talking on
such a subject, she explained afterwards. But at the time she didn't
show any res