lso got in. Denah watched her, and observed the
shape of her feet and ankles jealously. She glanced sharply at Joost,
but he was not guilty of such indecorum as even thinking about any
girl's legs, so, having said her good-bye, she got in reassured.
Finally they drove away amid wishes for a safe drive and a pleasant
excursion.

Of course there was a little settling to do inside the carriage, the
wraps and baskets to be disposed of, and each person to be assured
that the others had enough room, and just the place they preferred to
any other. By the time that was done they stopped again at the house
of Mijnheer's head clerk; here they were to take up two children,
girls of fourteen and fifteen, who had been invited to come with the
party. The carriage was not kept waiting, the children were out before
it had fairly stopped; they were flaxenly fair girls, wearing little
blue earrings, Sunday hats, and cotton gloves of course--all the party
wore cotton gloves; it was, Julia judged, part of the excursion
outfit.

Now they were really off, driving out beyond the outskirts of the
town; along flat roads where the wheels sank noiselessly into the soft
sand, and the horses' feet clattered on the narrow brick track in the
centre. For a time they followed the canal closely, but soon they left
it, and saw in the distance nothing but its high green banks, with the
brown sails of boats showing above, and looking as if they were a good
deal higher than the carriage road. They passed small fields,
subdivided into yet smaller patches, and all very highly cultivated.
And small black and white houses, and small black and white cows, and
black and white goats, and dogs, and even cats of the same combination
of colour. Everything was rather small, but everywhere very tidy;
nothing out of its place or wasted, and nobody hurrying or idling; all
were busy, with a small bustling business, as unlike aggressive
English idleness as it was unlike the deceptive, leisurely power of
English work.

Denah and Anna looked out of either side of the carriage, and pointed
out things to Julia and the two little girls. Here it was what they
called a country seat, a sort of castellated variety of overgrown
chalet, surrounded by a wonderful garden of blazing flower-beds and
emerald lawns, all set round with rows and rows of plants in bright
red pots. Or there it was a cemetery, where the peaceful aspect made
Denah sentimental, and the beauty of the trees dre