Her beauty added refinement that education and wide
travel usually furnish.
It was seen in Alfonso's face and in his marked deference that Christine
filled his ideal of a beautiful woman. Christine and her mother and the
young artists were registered at the Hotel de Orange, so of necessity
they were thrown into each other's company. They drove to The Hague,
compared the statues of William of Orange with each other; rode along
the elegant streets, south through the Zoological and Botanical Gardens,
through the park, and to the drill grounds. A half-day was spent in
visiting the "House in the Woods," a Royal Villa, one and one-half
miles northeast of The Hague. This palace is beautifully decorated,
particularly the Orange Salon, which was painted by artists of the school
of Rubens.
Alfonso and Leo enjoyed their visits to the celebrated picture gallery,
which contains among many Dutch paintings the famous pictures by Paul
Potter and Rembrandt. Paul Potter's Bull is deservedly popular. This
picture was once carried off to Paris, and there ranked high in the
Louvre, and later the Dutch offered 60,000 florins to Napoleon for its
restoration.
Christine, who was well conversant with art matters, knew the location
and artistic value of each painting and guided the young Americans to
works by Van Dyck, Rubens, the Tenniers, Holbein, and others.
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