place to learn 'chauffeuring'
in," I said; "but it's all right when you have learned."

"It's a good thing," she went on, "that motoring wasn't invented by some
grand seignor in the Middle Ages, when the rich thought no more of the
poor than we do of flies, or they'd have run over every one who didn't
get out of their way on the instant. They'd have had a sort of
cow-catcher fitted on to their cars, to keep themselves from coming to
harm, and they'd have dashed people aside, anyhow. In these days, no
matter how hard your heart may be, you have to sacrifice your
inclinations more or less to decency. I dare say the Car of Juggernaut
was a motor. Oh, what a _huge_ town! Shall we ever get out of
Pandemonium into the country?"

We did get out at last, and suddenly, for in Hollow Land the line
between town and country is abrupt, with no fading of city into suburb
and meadow. One moment we were in the bustle of Amsterdam; the next, we
were running along a klinker road, straight as a ruler, beside a quiet
canal. Such horses as we met, being accustomed to the traffic of
Amsterdam, had no fear of the motor, which was well; for on so narrow a
road, with the canal on one side, and a deep drop into meadows on the
other, an adventure would be disagreeable. But it was not all straight
sailing ahead. Outside the traffic, I put on speed to make up for lost
time, and the car quickly ate up the distance between Amsterdam and
Muiden.

My passengers broke into admiration of the medieval fortress with its
paraphernalia of moats, bastions, and drawbridges, which give an air of
historic romance to the country round; but their emotion would have been
of a different kind had they guessed the risk we must take in running
through the winding fortifications. It was not so great a risk that it
was foolish to take it, and thirty or forty cars must do the same thing
every day; but the fact was, that we had to run through these tunnels on
tram-lines, with no room to turn out in case of meeting a steam monster
from Hilversum. I had chosen my time, knowing the hours for trams;
still, had there been a delay, there was a chance of a crash, for our
horn could not be heard by the tram driver, nor could he see us in time
to put on his brakes and prevent a collision.

With the girl I love beside me, and three other passengers, not to
mention the chauffeur, it was with a tenseness of the nerves that I
drove through the labyrinth, and I was glad to clear Mu