All the rest of the prolonged trip had been without
any specific motive, so far as he was concerned.
The youngsters had planned all its routes and halts and
details of time and connections, and he had gone along,
with cheerful placidity, to look at the things they bade
him observe, and to pay the bills. Perhaps in all things
their tastes had not been his tastes. He would have liked
more of Paris, he fancied, and less of the small Dutch
and North German towns which they seemed to fancy so much.
Still, the beer was good--and really their happiness,
as a spectacle, had given him more satisfaction than
a thousand miles of boulevards could have done.
He liked this niece and nephew of his more than he could
ever have imagined himself liking any young people.
They had been shy with him at the outset--and for the first
week his experiment had been darkened by the belief that,
between themselves, they did not deem him quite good enough.
He had been wise enough, then, to have it out with the
girl--she was the one to whom he felt it easiest to talk
frankly--and had discovered, to his immense relief,
that they conceived him to be regarding them as encumbrances.
At breakfast next morning, with tactful geniality, he set
everything right, and thereafter they were all extremely
happy together.
So far as he could judge, they were very superior
young people, both intellectually and spiritually.
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