IN THE STATE OF DENMARK 101 



such pressure on the brain does sight-seeing induce 

 in those by nature unfitted for it. 



But the cathedral imparted sohdity to our con- 

 versation during the anxieties of a visit which a lady 

 to whom we had been given an introduction received 

 from us tliat afternoon. Being, after the manner of 

 the Danes, cultured in the language and literature of 

 other countries, she talked to us in English of our 

 standard classics, of modern novels, both the less and 

 the greater, of English politics and forms of govern- 

 ment, till we were as grasshoppers before her. Her 

 generous certainty that these subjects were to us the 

 mere A B C of everyday life was in itself a shelter, 

 but we did not lose a moment in escaping to topics 

 in which ignorance might grope for the wall at noonday 

 and not be ashamed. 



" Aarhus ? Oh yes." Our hostess' tone was 



one of affectionate apology. It was an old town, but 

 not venerable; it was prosperous, but not robustly 

 or assertively so. The Danes had not much enter- 

 prise nowadays, in spite of their Viking lineage. 

 AVould we not take off our hats ? 



It was obvious that we should have done this at 

 the beginning of affairs, but being oppressed by the 

 thought of veils, of hatpins, of the generally down- 

 trodden appearance of the hair when a hat is taken 

 off, and, most of all, by the imphcation that we were 

 going to settle seriously down to waste our hostess' 

 time, it seemed better to go away. In spite of much 

 hospitable remonstrance we did so, possessors of one 

 sinister fact of Danish life, that in making an after- 

 noon call the first duty is to take off the hat, no 

 matter with what expenditure of patience and 

 back-glasses it has been put on. 



At noon next day two chestnut horses, with hollow 

 backs, ponderous crests, and faces of gentle human 



