er boat, as she doesn't care about
the Jonkheer.

Now we began to see what a Dutch dyke really is, and I could imagine men
riding furiously along the high, narrow road, carrying the news to
village after village that the water was rising.

There was just room on top for anything we might meet to pass; but the
chauffeur drove slowly, and Mr. van Buren said there was no danger, so I
wasn't afraid. There was a sense of protection in sitting next to him,
he is so big and dependable. I felt he would not _let_ anything hurt me;
and once in a while he looked at me with a very nice look. I suppose he
has even nicer ones for Freule Menela, though, when they are alone
together. It is a pity her manner is so much against her.

Although I wasn't terrified, it was an exciting drive, running along on
the high dyke (I could hardly believe it when Mr. van Buren said there
were bigger ones in Zeeland), with the Zuider Zee on one side and the
wide green reaches of Jonkheer Brederode's Hollow Land on the other.

I shivered to think what would happen if the hungry sea, forever gnawing
at the granite pile, were to break it down and pour over the low-lying
land. Many times in the past such awful things happened; what if to-day
were the day for it to happen again?

I asked Mr. van Buren if he didn't wake up sometimes in the night with
an attack of the horrors; but he seemed anxious to soothe me, as if he
didn't want his country spoiled for me by fears.

"The corps of engineers who look after the coast defenses is the best in
the world," he said.

Edam was our first town; and it was odd to see it, after nibbling its
cheeses more or less all one's life, and never thinking of the place
they came from. The funniest thing was that it smelled of cheese--a
delicious smell that seemed a part of the town's tranquillity, just as
the perfume seems part of a flower. In most of the pretty old houses
with their glittering ornamental tiles, there was some sign of
cheese-making; and all the people of Edam must have been busy making it,
as we saw only two or three.

We stopped in a large public square, with a pattern in the colored
pavement, like carpet, and the place was so quiet that the sound of the
silence droned in our ears.

"And this," said Mr. van Buren, "was once one of the proudest cities of
the Zuider Zee!"

"My goodness!" exclaimed Lady MacNairne, "is this little old thing
another of the Dead Cities? Well, I'm sure it couldn't have bee