Rollo in Holland | Page 7

it is extremely easy to step in and out of it,
and the seat of the driver is high up behind. The driver drives over the
top of the chaise! Thus the view for the passengers riding inside is
wholly unobstructed, and this makes the Hansom cab a very convenient
and pleasant vehicle for two persons to ride in, through the streets of a
new and strange town.]
"But, first," said he, "I will go with you to the stand, and see you safe in
a cab."
So they turned into another street, and presently they came to a stand.
There was a long row of cabs there, of various kinds, all waiting to be
employed. Among them were several Hansoms.
Mr. Parkman looked along the line to select one that had a good horse.
The distance was considerable that they had to go, and besides Mr.
Parkman knew that his wife liked always to go fast. So when he had
selected the best looking horse, he made a signal to the driver. The
driver immediately left the stand, and drove over to the sidewalk where
Mr. Parkman and his party were waiting.
Mr. Parkman immediately opened the door of the cab to allow his wife
to go in; but she, instead of entering, began to look scrutinizingly into it,
and hung back.
"Is this a nice cab?" said she. "It seems to me that I have seen nicer
cabs than this.
"Let us look," she added, "and see if there is not a better one

somewhere along the line."
The cabman, looking down from his exalted seat behind the vehicle,
said that there was not a nicer cab than his in London.
"O, of course," said Mrs. Parkman. "They always say that. But I can
find a nicer one, I'm sure, somewhere in the line."
So saying she began to move on. Mr. Parkman gave the cabman a
silver sixpence--which is equal to a New York shilling--to compensate
him for having been called off from his station, and then followed his
wife across the street to the side where the cabs were standing. Mrs.
Parkman led the way all down the line, examining each hack as she
passed it; but she did not find any one that looked as well as the first.
[Illustration: THE HANSOM CAB.]
"After all," said she, "we might as well go back and take the first one."
So she turned and began to retrace her steps--the two gentlemen
accompanying her. But when they got back they found that the one
which Mr. Parkman had first selected was gone. It had been taken by
another customer.
Mr. George was now entirely out of patience; but he controlled himself
sufficiently to suppress all outward manifestation of it, only saying that
he believed he would not wait any longer.
"I will go down to the river," said he, "and take a boat, and when you
get a carriage you can go by land. I will wait for you at the entrance to
the tunnel."
So he went away; and as soon as he turned the corner of the street he
snapped his fingers and nodded his head with the air of a man who has
just made a very lucky escape.
"I thank my stars," said he to himself, "that I have not got such a lady
as that to take care of. Handsome as she is, I would not have her for a
travelling companion on any account whatever."

It was from having witnessed several such exhibitions of character as
this that Mr. George had expressed himself so strongly to Rollo on the
subject of joining Mr. Parkman and his wife in making the tour of
Holland.
But notwithstanding Mr. George's determination that he would not
travel in company with such a lady, it seemed to be decreed that he
should do so, for he left London about a week after this to go to
Holland with Rollo alone; and though he postponed setting out for
several days, so as to allow Mr. and Mrs. Parkman time to get well
under way before them, he happened to fall in with them several times
in the course of the journey. The first time that he met with them was in
crossing the Straits of Dover.
There are several ways by which a person may go to Holland from
London. The cheapest is to take a steamer, by which means you go
down the Thames, and thence pass directly across the German Ocean to
the coast of Holland. But that makes quite a little voyage by sea, during
which almost all persons are subject to a very disagreeable kind of
sickness, on account of the small size of the steamers, and the short
tossing motion of the sea that almost