"Not row myself!" he exclaimed. "Why shouldn't I, in the name of
goodness? Let me tell you I can pull a good oar still. If only I had
had my flannels! You seem to think I'm fit for nothing."

Colonel Faversham astonished Carrissima by rising from his chair and
taking off his coat. Removing the links from his shirt-cuff, he
solemnly turned back the sleeve, then clenching his fist, slowly raised
his forearm, looking the while so red in the face that she grew quite
alarmed.

"Feel that!" he said.

"I will take your word for it----"

"Kindly do as I ask you," he insisted, with his arm still bent. "I
can't stand like this all day."

Carrissima accordingly felt his biceps with her thumb and forefinger.

"As hard as wood," she said.

"Ah!" he answered, with a smile of relief and satisfaction, as he
turned down his shirtsleeve again; "I thought that would astonish you.
Not row myself!"

He was obviously in the highest spirits, and indeed he was still under
the influence of the intoxicating pleasures of the earlier part of the
day. Not that this had passed without some drawbacks. The present
which he had bought at Donaldson's had been the cause of considerable