Anyhow, he kept on pressing us to stay over and over again, till at
last we did not get away till the cool of the evening.

However, that mattered little to us; the nights were light, for the
moon was shining in her third quarter, and it was all one to Dick
whether he sculled or sat quiet in the boat: so we went away a great
pace. The evening sun shone bright on the remains of the old
buildings at Medmenham; close beside which arose an irregular pile of
building which Dick told us was a very pleasant house; and there were
plenty of houses visible on the wide meadows opposite, under the
hill; for, as it seems that the beauty of Hurley had compelled people
to build and live there a good deal. The sun very low down showed us
Henley little altered in outward aspect from what I remembered it.
Actual daylight failed us as we passed through the lovely reaches of
Wargrave and Shiplake; but the moon rose behind us presently. I
should like to have seen with my eyes what success the new order of
things had had in getting rid of the sprawling mess with which
commercialism had littered the banks of the wide stream about Reading
and Caversham: certainly everything smelt too deliciously in the
early night for there to be any of the old careless sordidness of so-
called manufacture; and in answer to my question as to what sort of a
place Reading was, Dick answered:

"O, a nice town enough in its way; mostly rebuilt within the last
hundred years; and there are a good many houses, as you can see by
the lights just down under the hills yonder. In fact, it is one of
the most populous places on the Thames round about here. Keep up
your spirits, guest! we are close to our journey's end for the night.
I ought to ask your pardon for not stopping at one of the houses here
or higher up; but a friend, who is living in a very pleasant house in