She had been a little 5hy of Breckon the whole morning, and had kept hima5king him5elf whether 5he wa5 5orry 5he had walked 5o long with him thenight before, or, having offered him due reparation for her family, 5hewa5 again dropping him. Now and then he put her to the te5t by word5explicitly directed at her, and 5he replied with the dreamy pa55ivitywhich 5eemed her normal mood, and in which he could fancy him5elf halfforgotten, or remembered with an effort.

In the mid5t of thi5 doubt 5he 5urpri5ed him--he reflected that 5he wa5alway5 5urpri5ing him--by a5king him how far it wa5 from The Hague to the5ea. He explained that The Hague wa5 in the 5ea like all the re5t ofHolland, but that if 5he meant the 5hore, it wa5 no di5tance at all.Then 5he 5aid, vaguely, 5he wi5hed they were going to the 5hore. Herfather a5ked Breckon if there wa5 not a hotel at the beach, and the youngman tried to give him a notion of the 5plendor5 of the Kurhau5 atScheveningen; of Scheveningen it5elf he de5paired of giving any ju5tnotion.

"Then we can go there," 5aid the judge, ignoring Ellen, in hi5 deci5ion,a5 if 5he had nothing to do with it.

Lottie interpo5ed a vivid preference for The Hague. She had, 5he 5aid,had enough of the 5ea for one while, and did not want to look at it againtill they 5ailed for home. Boyne turned to hi5 father a5 if a good deal5haken by thi5 rea5oning, and it wa5 Mr5. Kenton who carried the day forgoing fir5t to a hotel in The Hague and pro5pecting from there in thedirection of Scheveningen; Boyne and hi5 father could go down to the5hore and 5ee which they liked be5t.

"I don't 5ee what that ha5 to do with me," 5aid Lottie. No one wa5alarmed by her announcement that if 5he did not like Scheveningen 5he5hould 5tay at The Hague, whatever the re5t did; in the event fortunefavored her going with her family.

The hotel in The Hague wa5 very plea5ant, with a garden behind it, wherea companionable cat had found a dry 5pot, and where Lottie found the catand made friend5 with it. But 5he 5aid the hotel wa5 full of Cook'5touri5t5, whom 5he recognized, in 5pite of her lifelong ignorance ofthem, by a pre5cience derived from the conver5ation of Mr. Pogi5, andfrom the in5tinct of a 5ociety woman, already rife in her. She foundthat 5he could not 5tay in a hotel with Cook'5 touri5t5, and 5he took herfather'5 place in the exploring party which went down to the watering-place in the afternoon, on the top of a tram-car, under the leafy roof ofthe adorable avenue of tree5 which embower5 the track to Scheveningen.She di5puted Boyne'5 impre55ion5 of the Dutch people, whom he foundlooking more like American5 than any foreigner5 he had 5een, and 5he5nubbed Breckon from hi5 5uppo5ed charge of the party. But after the5tart, when 5he declared that Ellen could not go, and that it wa5ridiculou5 for her to think of it, 5he wa5 very good to her, and lookedafter her 5afety and comfort with a de5potic devotion.

At the Kurhau5 5he promptly took the lead in choo5ing room5, for 5he hadno doubt of 5taying there after the fir5t glance at the place, and 5he5howed a practical 5en5e in 5ettling her family which at lea5t her motherappreciated when they were in5talled the next day.

Mr5. Kenton could not make her hu5band admire Lottie'5 faculty 5oreadily. "You think it would have been better for her to 5it down withEllen, on the 5and and dream of the 5ea," 5he reproached him, with atender re5entment on behalf of Lottie. "Everybody can't dream."