"_Oui!_" replied the Misses Bingham with simultaneous dignity, and, as the guide merely wiped his forehead again, poppa stepped forward. "Can I assist you?" he said, and the Misses Bingham allowed themselves to be assisted. They were small ladies, dressed in black pongee silk, with sloping shoulders, and they each carried a black fan and a brocaded bag for odds and ends. They were not plain-looking, and yet it was readily seen why nobody had ever married them; they had that look of the predestined single state that you sometimes see even among the very well preserved. One of them had an eye-glass, but it was easy to note even when she was not wearing it that she was a person of independent income, of family, and of New York. "We are quite willing," said the Misses Bingham, "to exchange our seats in the coach for yours in the special carriage, if that arrangement suits you." "_Bon!_" interposed the guide, "and opposite there is one other place if that fat gentleman will squeeze himself a little--eh?" "Come along!" said the fat gentleman equably. "But I couldn't think of depriving you ladies." "Sir," said one Miss Bingham, "it is no deprivation." "We should prefer it," added the other Miss Bingham. They spoke with decision; one saw that they had not reached middle age without knowing their own minds all the way. "To tell the truth," added the Miss Bingham without the eye-glass in a low voice, "we don't think we can stand it." "I don't precisely take you, madam," said the Senator politely. "I'm an American," she continued. Poppa bowed. "I should have known you for a daughter of the Stars and Stripes anywhere," he said in his most complimentary tone. Miss Bingham looked disconcerted for an instant and went on. "My great grandfather was A.D.C. to General Washington. I've got that much reason to be loyal." "There couldn't have been many such officers," the Senator agreed. "But when I go abroad I don't want the whole of the United States to come with me." "It takes the gilt off getting back for you?" suggested poppa a little stiffly. Miss Bingham failed to take the hint. "We find Europe infested with Americans," she continued. "It disturbs one's impressions so. And the travelling American invariably belongs to the very _least_ desirable class." "Now I shouldn't have thought so," said the Senator, with intentional humour. But it was lost upon Miss Bingham. "Well, if you like them," said the other one, "you'd better go in the coach." The Senator lifted his hat. "Madam," he said, "I thank you for giving to me and mine the privilege of visiting a very questionable scene of the past in the very best society of the present." And as the guide was perspiring more and more impatiently, we got in.