been fellow voyagers at sea, and it is always a surprise and perplexity to inexperienced travellers that it can be so, and that those who have been so much to each other for ten days can melt away into space and disappear as though the brief intimacy had never existed.

`Four-wheeler or hansom, ma'am?' said a porter to Mrs Ashe.

`Which, Katy?'

`Oh, let us have a hansom! I never saw one, and they look so nice in Punch.'

So a hansom cab was called, the two ladies got in, Amy cuddled down between them, the folding doors were shut over their knees like a lap robe, and away they drove up the solidly-paved streets to the hotel where they were to pass the night. It was too late to see or do anything but enjoy the sense of being on firm land once more.

`How lovely it will be to sleep in a bed that doesn't tip or roll from side to side!' said Mrs Ashe.

`Yes, and that is wide enough and long enough and soft enough to be comfortable!' replied Katy. `I feel as if I could sleep for a fortnight to make up for the bad nights at sea.'

Everything seemed delightful to her the space for undressing, the great tub of fresh water which stood beside the English-looking wash stand with its ample basin and ewer, the chintz-curtained bed, the coolness, the silence - and she closed her eyes with the pleasant thought it her mind, `It is really England, and we are really here!'