IN THE STATE OF DENMARK 141 



wife of your mother's brother must give irrefutable 

 standing in family life. It must even lend equality 

 to an argument with your grandmother, inflamed 

 though the position may otherwise be by the blend 

 of mother-in-law. Reason was tottering in the 

 attempt to enumerate the somersaults of relationship 

 that might be achieved by marrying one's unele, 

 when Fredericia intervened, the junction for the 

 Copenhagen mail route. 



We sought out an empty carriage in the new train, 

 we filled up the corners with forbidding hand-parcels, 

 we spread our wearing apparel on the seats, and our- 

 selves at full length along the cushions in the semblance 

 of invalids. The ruse was perfectly successful. The 

 train moved on; my cousin opened the luncheon- 

 basket. She had just got the cork out of a bottle 

 of soda-wand (which in Denmark means soda-w^ater), 

 when the train stopped and the door was thrown 

 open. A squat and ungainly steam-barge was along- 

 side, and beyond it an arm of the sea lay blue and 

 sparkling in the new recovery of the day from down- 

 pour. We got on board eventually — that is all that 

 need be recorded — but the soda-wand did not. 



Somewhere in the striving and the cloud of hand- 

 parcels remained the impression of an English voice, 

 the first accent of Britain heard for a fortnight. It 

 was asking with easy patronage whether there w^ere 

 " anything to see about here." Perhaps some recent 

 conversations on the subject of the Englishman 

 abroad were fresh in our minds, but the tone caused 

 a sudden vivid insight into the feelings of dishke, 

 contempt, and respect which our countrymen inspire 

 in other lands ; and we also felt, for the Imndredth 

 time, the real touch of greatness that lies in the 

 self-esteem of the Briton. 



In a rough and cheerful breeze, we and our hat- 



