the world,
"Mascotte" never sped more bravely. Through the wide Noord Canal she
took us as unconcernedly as if our hopes and fears for the future were
nothing to her. Out of sheer spite at her lack of sympathy, I enjoyed my
private knowledge that, whatever happens to her, she is certain to lose
her companion, "Waterspin." But she didn't know that; so she jogged on,
purring, in blissful ignorance of the separation in store for her.

If Dordrecht had come under our eyes when they were fresh to Dutch
waterways, we could not have passed it. Even now, _blase_ with
sight-seeing, and preoccupied with private heartburnings, it seemed
rather like passing Venice without troubling to stop; for Dordrecht
appeared to me more reminiscent of Venice than any other place seen
during the trip.

So attractive did it look, as we peered up its pink-and-green canals,
that I did suggest pausing.

"It would give us one more day together," I said, "if we took this for
exploring Dordrecht and arrived at Middelburg to-morrow. Why are we in a
hurry?"

Brederode laughed. "Ask Robert," he said.

But Robert's face and Phyllis's both answered before the question could
be put. I guessed that Robert would have liked to stop the tour at
Rotterdam (for what to him are the joys of traveling with a party
compared to the bliss of the honeymoon?), but that Phyllis would not
cheat Nell of Zeeland, which has always been talked of as the climax of
the trip; Zeeland the mysterious, Zeeland the strange, proud daughter of
the sea.

"Some time we shall meet again, for you must all join in paying a visit
to Phyllis and me. Then we will take you to Dordrecht, and we will all
speak together of this day," said Robert.

That settled it, for though Nell is owner of the boat and mistress of
the situation, she would do nothing to postpone Phyllis's happiness.
Something of the sort she murmured to me as we puffed past Dordrecht;
but I could see by her face that Phyllis's idea of happiness is not
hers.

"Good excuse to get in my entering wedge," I thought. "Ask her if she
doesn't think it a risk for a girl to marry anybody but one of her own
countrymen. If she says 'yes,' there's my chance. If she's inclined to
argue, try to convince her, with our case in point."

No sooner, however, had I got my blue-serge shoulder closer to her white
serge shoulder, as we both leaned over the rail, looking back toward the
old town founded by great Count Dietrich, than up sidled