by their intellectual and moral superiority. They conspire in no way to
attain certain ends, but discuss things as intimately as only brothers or
man and wife can discuss them, in the genial intimacy of their unselfish
friendship. They generally agree on the lines to be taken in certain
matters, but even if they fail to agree, this does not prevent them from
acting according to their own rights, still respecting each other's
convictions and preferences. And not only local topics are discussed in
the meetings of the 'Heptarchy,' for politics, art, trade, and science,
foreign and Dutch, come within their scope; for their intellectual
outlook, like their sympathies, is universal.

Towards eleven o'clock we take leave of each other. Walraven, Hendriks,
and ourselves go to the ball at the house of the 'Commissaris der
Koningin' (Queen's Commissioner), the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, Baron
Alma van Strae. Baron and Baroness Alma live in a palatial mansion, and we
find the huge reception and drawing rooms full of a gay crowd of young
folk. The rooms are beautifully decorated, there is a profusion of flowers
and palms in the halls and on the stairs; and a host of footmen in
bright-buttoned, buff-coloured livery coats, short trousers, and white
stockings, move quietly about, betraying the well-trained instincts of
hereditary lackeydom. There are county councillors, judges, officers of
army and navy, bankers, merchants, manufacturers, town councillors, the
mayor and town clerk, the president and some members of the Chamber of
Commerce, and committee-men of orphanages and homes for old people. All
have brought their wives, daughters, and sons to do the dancing, for
though they occasionally join themselves, they prefer to indulge in a
quiet game of whist or to settle down in Baron Alma's smoking and billiard
room for a cigar.

These social fonctions, however, are much the same in Holland as in other