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    Here there are not so many people, and they are perhaps more select. Most of them are English, certainly a good half of the players. Two exquisitely dressed women with sleek platinum blonde hair are there. Lady So-and-So and her daughter. One might take them for sisters. One man is so absorbed in higher mathematics that he does not even raise his head. The ventilators are for ever spinning, and the giant palms stir slightly in the breeze. We went straight to the bar. Muriel chose a delightful and innocent drink, while I ordered a whisky.
    “But that is spirits,” remarked Muriel.
    I then explained that as we were in a private club, not accessible to the public, anything might be taken.
    “I’ll understand some day,” said Muriel. And then we chatted and made the acquaintance of some charming visitors from England.
The Coast
    The following day we decided to see Ostend more thoroughly: the port, the fish market, the covered market, so picturesque and colourful, the old quarter with its fine patrician houses, the two parks, the Pump Room—Palais des Thermes—the Napoleon fort, which is Ostend’s war museum. We walked to the end of the pier, which stretches for 700 metres into the sea, and we just had time, before bathing, to see a tennis match. In the afternoon we went to the race-course, the Wellington Hippodrome, which is exceedingly well planned and from which one can see, stretching on one side, the sunlit and murmuring sea, and on the other the limitless expanse of flat Flemish country, out of which, like islands in a green sea, rise the farms and houses of Flanders.
    We saw thoroughbreds race here, wearing the colours of world-famed stables. All the race-horses from the race-courses round Brussels, open during the winter months, run here in July and August, during which periodseveral Grand Prix races are run. This is one of the foremost afternoon attractions along the coast.
    After a brief call for tea at the Kursaal, which was crowded with tireless and fashionable dancers, we decided to explore the coast further.
    We set out for Le Zoute, the Belgian coastal resort which lies closest to the Dutch frontier. If Ostend may be considered the most important, the most international of our seaside towns, and the one that can provide the most varied entertainments, Le Zoute is without doubt the most elegant and distinguished. It is also the resort most favoured by English visitors. It might almost be considered a half English town, and it is there that you should go after having been to Ostend. The baths here are also exceedingly comfortable, and there are a great many hotels and restaurants. Very fine concerts are frequently being given, and the Casino here has gaming rooms larger and finer than those of Ostend. The building itself is carried out on daring modern lines.
The Hotel Problem
    As to the hotels, you may choose the Rubens or any other to be found here. They are all excellent. (Let it be said, in passing, that the hotel problem is easily solved in Belgium.) All the towns we will describe are tourist centres, and the hotel trade is very up to date and satisfactory everywhere owing to the intensive competition. This is a guarantee of service and efficiency. It is advisable, on arriving at any hotel or boarding-house, to ask for all particulars as to the rooms, the comfort you may expect, the meals, and so on. You will find that these questions will be willingly answered. As for tips, this has been regulated in Belgium, and most hotels charge an additional service fee—roughly 10 per cent. of the bill—but it is usual to give something extra to the porter. In the cafés, tea-rooms, or where there is dancing, it is understood that waiters and waitresses should be tipped. The tips vary from ten to twenty per cent, of the bill, according to the generosity of the customer, his degree of satisfaction with the service, and the amount of the bill.
    When you are tired of bathing, tennis or golf at Le Zoute (there is