That was the end of sightseeing. For as she shot clear of the little island, and curled round to swing back towards d'Avaux, she discovered that she was sharing the ice with a slow-moving clique of skaters. She glimpsed both men and women, finely dressed. To knock them down would have been bad form. To stop and introduce herself would have been infinitely worse. She spun round to face towards d'Avaux, skating backwards now, letting her momentum carry her past the group. She carved a long sweeping U round the west end of the Hofvijver, spun round to face forward again, built more speed without lifting her skates from the ice, by means of sashaying hip-movements that took her down the long front of the Binnenhof, in a serpentine path, and finally stopped just before running into d'Avaux by planting the blades sideways and shaving up a glittering wall of ice. Nothing very acrobatic really – but it was enough to draw applause from Blue Guards, St. George Guildsmen, and noble skaters alike.