8 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



come to do it. She never attempts to board the 

 train without at least one assistant ; if she be stout, 

 two. In the latter case it is not altogether un- 

 necessary, for the steps are steep, the door narrow, 

 and the stations, like others on the Continent, 

 guiltless of platforms ; the difficulties of getting a 

 really fat and baggage-laden lady in are consider- 

 able. Inside the train she is very helpless about 

 her belongings and prepared to cast herself upon 

 the kindness of any or all men ; outside Mevrouw 

 is as capable as any woman in the world. The 

 peculiarity probably arises from the fact that 

 Holland, in some respects, is still rather mid- 

 Victorian ; the women, at all events, cling to the 

 ideal of feminine helplessness in public places 

 which was counted becoming in that era. 



Haarlem, it is said, is behind the rest of 

 Holland ; with what truth I do not know, I know 

 no other part half so well. It is a town not quite 

 like any other, so quiet and bright, so small scale 

 busy with its own concerns, so essentially cosy. 

 There is there a feeling of attending to your 

 own business, and the price of meat mattering 

 more than the Messina earthquake (as, indeed, it 

 is conceivable it may to a good many people) ; and 

 also a feeling of comfort and the settled home life ; 



