deepened by a flush, as she brought the gunwale of her boat alongside
ours, and said:

"You see, neighbours, I had some doubt if you would all three come
back past Runnymede, or if you did, whether you would stop there; and
besides, I am not sure whether we--my father and I--shall not be away
in a week or two, for he wants to see a brother of his in the north
country, and I should not like him to go without me. So I thought I
might never see you again, and that seemed uncomfortable to me, and--
and so I came after you."

"Well," said Dick, "I am sure we are all very glad of that; although
you may be sure that as for Clara and me, we should have made a point
of coming to see you, and of coming the second time, if we had found
you away the first. But, dear neighbour, there you are alone in the
boat, and you have been sculling pretty hard I should think, and
might find a little quiet sitting pleasant; so we had better part our
company into two."

"Yes," said Ellen, "I thought you would do that, so I have brought a
rudder for my boat: will you help me to ship it, please?"

And she went aft in her boat and pushed along our side till she had
brought the stern close to Dick's hand. He knelt down in our boat
and she in hers, and the usual fumbling took place over hanging the
rudder on its hooks; for, as you may imagine, no change had taken
place in the arrangement of such an unimportant matter as the rudder
of a pleasure-boat. As the two beautiful young faces bent over the
rudder, they seemed to me to be very close together, and though it
only lasted a moment, a sort of pang shot through me as I looked on.