off trees in soft gray and violet, with a gleam of rose here and
there, which means a house-roof half hidden, in the middle distance.
Lady MacNairne admired the sketch particularly; and I got the idea--I
hardly know why--that she was not quite pleased to have it given to me
instead of to her.

XXVI

It was late afternoon when we came to Leeuwarden, and the first thing we
found out was, that it was not at all a place where we should enjoy
stopping on the boats, because of a very "ancient" and very, very
"fish-like smell" which pervaded the canal, and made us wear
extraordinary expressions on our faces as it found its way to our
nostrils. But nobody else seemed even to notice it; nobody else wore
agonized expressions; indeed, the girls we met as we drove to the hotel
had dove-like, smiling faces. They were tall and radiantly fair, with
peace in their eyes; and those who still kept to the fashion of wearing
gold and silver helmet-head-dresses were like noble young Minervas. I
could have scolded the ones who were silly enough to wear modern hats;
but all the old ladies were most satisfactory. We didn't meet one who
had not been loyal to the helmet of her youth; and they were such
beautiful old creatures that I could well believe the legend Jonkheer
Brederode told us: how the sirens of the North Sea had wedded Frisian
men, and all the girl-children had been as magically lovely as their
mothers.

The old-fashioned, rather dull streets were crowded with people, who
seemed in more of a hurry to get somewhere than they need have been, in
such a sleepy town; and when we arrived at the hotel all was excitement
and bustle. It happened that we had come in the midst of Kermess week,
the greatest event of the year at Leeuwarden; and if a party of
Americans had not gone away unexpectedly that morning they could not
have given us rooms, though Jonkheer Brederode had telegraphed from
Sneek.

As soon as we were settled, though it was nearly dinner-time, he
proposed that we should dart out and have a look round the fair,
because, he said, ladies must not go at night.

"Why not?" asked Nell, quick, as usual, to take him up if he seems
inclined to be masterful. "I should think it would be more amusing at
night."

"So it is," he admitted calmly.

"Then why aren't we to see it?"

"Because the play is too rough. Tom, Dick, and Harry, as you say in
England, come out after dark, when the fair's lighted up and at its
gayest, an