HOLLAND TO-DAY 97

ling bells, looking very picturesque. Also little ice-boats
with large sails that come flying across the frozen waters,
looking like great birds, but keeping at a little distance
from the crowd for fear of accidents. A fair was held on
the ice, where were going on all kinds of harmless amuse-
ments; and there were tents where they sold cakes and
steaming hot milk and chocolate. The whole scene, the
bright, moving, joyous crowd, made me think of the pictures
by the old masters, like Teniers and Ostade, it was so thor-
oughly Dutch. But to think that this immense solid sur-
face, whereon you moved so confidently, would melt again
before the year was much older and change itself into lap-
ping waves! It was hardly conceivable! .. .

“ At the Hague we have a very prettily situated skating-
club, where our little circle of friends saw each other daily
and where we spent many a pleasant hour. So the winter
has flown by. It is not quite over, but it seems so to me,
as the last weeks have been very fine, and the place where
we live, being half country, directly takes a spring-like air.
Tennis begins to reign supreme, and I am going to practise
this game very seriously.

«... [have not heard much music this winter. Our
German opera, which grew poorer and poorer every year, 1s
now gone altogether, and that was the only way in which we
heard some Wagnerian operas, which I like above all others;
indeed, the more you hear them the less you care about the
others. Once a fortnight I regularly go to the concert, but
there are times when I can’t listen to the music. My
mind strays, and try as much as I will, the sounds pass

over me and don’t leave any impression ; I think the reason
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