as to miss them. Then we
were marshalled away by Robert for luncheon, as we'd been three hours in
the Mauritshuis, and before long we must be driving to the _Concours
Hippique_.

Only three hours in some of the best society on earth, and I shall be
expected to tell about my impressions when I go back to England! I know
well that I can tell nothing worth telling; and yet, even in this short
time, I feel that I understand more about Holland and the Hollanders
than I could have come to understand, except through their
pictures--more even than Motley could have told me.

I said to myself as I went away from the galleries, that Dutch painting
would stand for me henceforth as an epitome of the Dutch people. No one
but the Dutch could have painted pictures like theirs--so quaint, so
painstaking, and at the same time so splendid. Their love of rich brown
shadow and amber light was learned in the dim little rooms of their own
homes, and of inns where the brass and pewter gleamed in the mellow dusk
of raftered kitchens, and piles of fruit and vegetables fell like
jewels, from paniers such as Gerard Douw took three days to paint on a
scale of three inches.

We had a hasty luncheon at a nice hotel with an air of Parisian gaiety
about it, and sped away in the motor to the Horse Show, which was to be
held in a park between The Hague and Scheveningen. It was advertised on
every wall and hoarding, even on lamp-posts, and Freule Menela (gorgeous
in a Paris frock and tilted hat) prophesied that, as the Queen and
Prince Consort were honoring the occasion, we should see the loveliest
women, handsomest men, and prettiest dresses, as well as the best horses
that Holland could produce.

"When I say Holland, I mean The Hague; it is the same thing," she added,
with a conceited toss of the chin; and I thought she deserved shaking
for her sly dig at Robert of Rotterdam, than whom there can be no
handsomer young man in the Netherlands.

Cousin Cornelia in filmy gray, and the twins radiant as fresh-plucked
roses in their white frocks and Leghorn hats, had arrived, and were in
one of the many long, open loggias close to the red-and-gold pavilion
which was ready for the Royalties.

Over the pavilion, with its gilded crown and crest, floated the orange
flag as well as the tricolor of Holland; everywhere flags were waving
and red bunting glowing, and there was far more effect of color than at
an English race-meeting. Every box, every seat, was f