in-law; but
when we got out to walk, I self-sacrificingly flung the twins to the
Chaperon, and, alone with the young lady from The Hague (she never lets
you forget for five minutes together that she is from The Hague) I
slackened my pace and regulated hers to it, that we might drop behind
the others.

The towing-path and the canal were beautiful and fantastic as some night
picture of Venice. A faint mist had risen out of the water at sunset,
and the red, green, and gold lamps suspended from trees and barges
seemed to hang in it like jewels caught in a veil of gauze. The trees
arched over us tenderly, bending as if to listen to words of love. The
soft rose-radiance that hovered in the air made lovely faces
irresistible, and plain ones tolerable. Any normal man would have been
impelled to propose to the nearest pretty girl, whether he had been
previously in love with her or not, and the nearest pretty girl would
have said "yes--yes," without stopping to think about her feelings
to-morrow.

Freule Menela van der Windt is not pretty; but without her _pince-nez_,
she looked almost piquant in the pink lights and blue shadows which
laced our features as we passed, for which I was devoutly thankful, as
it made my task comparatively easy. I found her softer, more feminine,
more sympathetic, than she had been in the hotel. She would, she said,
like to see America; and that gave me my chance. It was a pity, I told
her, that such an intelligent and broad-minded young lady should not
travel about the world before settling down in such a small, though
charming, country as Holland.

Instantly she caught me up, with a little laugh. "Why should you take it
for granted that I am going to 'settle down' anywhere?"

"Oh," said I, rather embarrassed at this direct attack, "I--er--was told
that Mr. van Buren had been lucky enough to persuade you to live in
Rotterdam."

"Never!" exclaimed Freule Menela, deeply interested in this conversation
about herself. "I will never live in Rotterdam!"

"But," I ventured, with an air of eagerness, "if you should marry a man
whose interests are in Rotterdam----"

"It isn't at all decided that I shall marry such a man," she answered
sharply.

"Not decided?" I repeated anxiously. "Look here, you know, I don't
think it's fair to other men that it should be taken for granted you're
engaged, if you're not really."

"Why should it matter to other men?" asked the lady.

"Oh, well, it might, you see.