and the day promised to be very hot. So we got up and went down to
our boat--Ellen thoughtful and abstracted; the old man very kind and
courteous, as if to make up for his crabbedness of opinion. Clara
was cheerful and natural, but a little subdued, I thought; and she at
least was not sorry to be gone, and often looked shyly and timidly at
Ellen and her strange wild beauty. So we got into the boat, Dick
saying as he took his place, "Well, it IS a fine day!" and the old
man answering "What! you like that, do you?" once more; and presently
Dick was sending the bows swiftly through the slow weed-checked
stream. I turned round as we got into mid-stream, and waving my hand
to our hosts, saw Ellen leaning on the old man's shoulder, and
caressing his healthy apple-red cheek, and quite a keen pang smote me
as I thought how I should never see the beautiful girl again.
Presently I insisted on taking the sculls, and I rowed a good deal
that day; which no doubt accounts for the fact that we got very late
to the place which Dick had aimed at. Clara was particularly
affectionate to Dick, as I noticed from the rowing thwart; but as for
him, he was as frankly kind and merry as ever; and I was glad to see
it, as a man of his temperament could not have taken her caresses
cheerfully and without embarrassment if he had been at all entangled
by the fairy of our last night's abode.

I need say little about the lovely reaches of the river here. I duly
noted that absence of cockney villas which the old man had lamented;
and I saw with pleasure that my old enemies the "Gothic" cast-iron
bridges had been replaced by handsome oak and stone ones. Also the
banks of the forest that we passed through had lost their courtly
game-keeperish trimness, and were as wild and beautiful as need he,
though the trees were clearly well seen to. I thought it best, in
order to get the most direct information, to play the innocent about