"No; at least I don't think so. But you had better ask," he replies. Ah! this asking! if you are not quite well, and don't understand the language (which I do not in German Switzerland), and get hold of an austere military station-master, or an imbecile porter, and then have to carry that most inconvenient article of all baggage, a hand-bag, which you have brought as "so convenient to hold everything you want for a night," and which is so light to carry until it is packed! "Then," goes on the imperturbable SKURRIE, "you'll 'do' Heidelberg, dine there, sleep there, and on Friday Heidelberg _dep_. 6 A.M.----" Here I interrupt with a groan--"Can't we go later?" "No," says SKURRIE, sternly. "Impossible. You'll upset all the calculations if you do." JANE says, meekly, that when one is travelling, and going to bed early, it is not so difficult to get up very early, and, for her part, she knows she shall be awake all night. Ah! so shall I, I feel, and already the journey begins to weigh heavily on me, and I do not bless SKURRIE and his plan. "But," I say aloud, knowing he has done it all for the best, and that I cannot now recede, "go on." He does so, at railroad pace:--"Heidelberg _dep_. 6. Mannheim _arr_. 7.5, _dep_. 7.15. Mayence _arr_. 8.22, in time for boat down the Rhine 8.55. Cologne _arr_. 4.30. And there you are." "Yes," I rejoin, rather liking the idea of Cologne, "there we are--and then?" "Well, you'll have a longish morning at Cologne; rest, see Cathedral, breakfast," and here he refers to his notes, "Cologne _dep_. 1.13 P.M., and Antwerp _arr_. 6.34." "Change anywhere?" I inquire, helplessly. "Yes," he answers, meditatively. "At this moment I forget where, but you've got examination of baggage on the Belgian frontier, and you have two changes, I think. However, it's all easy enough." "I'm glad of that," I say, trying to cheer up a bit, only somehow I am depressed: and Cousin JANE isn't much better, though she tries to put everything in the pleasantest possible light, and remarks that at all events "the travelling will soon be over." SKURRIE continues reading off his paper and comparing the details with my notes, "Sunday--Antwerp _dep_. 6.34 P.M. Rosendael _arr_. 7.45--yes--then Rosendael _dep_. 8.44, and catch the 10.10 P.M. boat at Flushing. Queenborough _arr_. 5.50, fresh as a lark, and up to town by 7.55." "But we don't want to go up to town, we want to go to Ramsgate." "Ha!" he says slowly, giving this idea as just sprung upon him his full consideration. "Ha!--let me see----" Then, as if by inspiration, he continues quickly--"sacrifice your London tickets, book luggage for Flushing, only then at Flushing re-book it for Queenborough, and once you're there you catch an early train to Ramsgate, and you'll be there nearly as soon as you would have arrived in London. Train just off. Wish you _bon voyage_." I thank him for all his trouble, and ask, with some astonishment, if he is not going to accompany us?