She laughed. "Ah," she said, "I thought you would scarcely go on
paddling at that rate. Yes, I canoe a great deal in the summer time. It
is my way of taking exercise, and I can swim well, so I am not afraid
of an upset. At least it has been my way for the last two years since a
lady who was staying here gave me the canoe when she went away. Before
that I used to row in a boat--that is, before I went to college."

"College? What college? Girton?"

"Oh, no, nothing half so grand. It was a college where you get
certificates that you are qualified to be a mistress in a Board school.
I wish it had been Girton."

"Do you?"--you are too good for that, he was going to add, but changed
it to--"I think you were as well away. I don't care about the Girton
stamp; those of them whom I have known are so hard."

"So much the better for them," she answered. "I should like to be hard
as a stone; a stone cannot feel. Don't you think that women ought to
learn, then?"

"Do you?" he asked.

"Yes, certainly."

"Have you learnt anything?"

"I have taught myself a little and picked up something at the college.
But I have no real knowledge, only a smattering of things."