and seemed to measure the banks, and took your punt and threw a chain
into the water in places."

"Took castings? Used my punt? That is odd! I have never seen a
stranger in my life by the Edera. Were they anglers?"

"No."

"Or sportsmen?"

"They had no guns."

"How many were they?"

"Three. They went away up the river talking."

"Did they cross the bridge?"

"No. They were not shepherds, or labourers, or priests," said Nerina.
To these classes of men her own acquaintance was confined.

"Painters, perhaps?" said Adone; but no artists were ever seen there;
the existence even of the valley was scarcely known, except to
topographers.

"What are painters?" said Nerina.

"Men who sit and stare and then make splashes of colour."

"No; they did not do that."