ed to Ireland--or America."

"What happened in the end?" asked Nell. "I do hope the man didn't give
in."

"Dutchmen don't, even to each other," said Alb. "The banker was as
obstinate as his enemies. He went to enormous expense, got everything
outside boycot limits, put up temporary buildings on his place for
workmen from Rotterdam, fed them and himself from Rotterdam, and so in
the end his house was built. But things are different in Gelderland now.
People who were rich then are poor, and glad of any one's money. Arnhem
is as cosmopolitan as The Hague, though it has the same curious
Indian-Dutch set you find there, keeping quite to itself. A good many of
the famous old places have been sold in these days to the _nouveaux
riches_, but some are left unspoiled, and I'm going to show you one of
them."

With that he drove his car through a wide, open gateway, a lodge-keeper
saluting as we went by.

"Oh, but how do you know we may go in?" asked Phyllis.

"I'm sure we may," said Brederode.

"Are strangers allowed?" the L.C.P. questioned him.

"Harmless ones, like us."

Far away a house was in sight, a beautiful old house, built of mellowed
red brick, its great tower and several minor turrets mirrored in a
lily-carpeted lake which surrounded it on two sides, like an
exaggerated moat. "Fifteenth century," said Brederode. "But the big
tower dates from twelve hundred and fifty."

We all stared in respectful awe of age and majesty, as Alb stopped the
car at a small iron gate about two hundred yards from the house. The
gate, guarded by giant oaks, led through a strip of shadowy park to a
glorious labyrinth of rose-gardens, and gardens entirely given up to
lilies of every imaginable variety, while beyond these was a
water-garden copied from that of the Generalife, which I saw last year
at Granada. Nor was this all of Spanish fashion which had been imitated.
Pedro the Cruel's fountain-perforated walks in the Alcazaar of Seville
had been copied too, and were put in operation for our amusement by a
gardener with whom Brederode had a short confab. When we passed again
through the rose and lily gardens, which were in a valley or dimple
between two gentle hills, all three of the ladies were presented with as
many flowers as they could carry, and Alb informed them that they would
find more, of other varieties, waiting for them in the car.

"What a divine place!" exclaimed Nell, as we came once more to the
little gate whence we