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own lips, which I had not; and perhaps you'll oblige the gentleman ?”

“Certainly, if it is wished,” said the curate. And he took up the clerk’s tale :

“Stephen’s wife hated the sea, except from land, and couldn’t bear the thought of going into a boat. James, too, disliked the water, and said that for his part he would much sooner stay on and listen to the band in the seat they occupied, though he did not wish to stand in his wife’s way if she desired a row. The end of the discussion was that James and his cousin’s wife Emily agreed to remain where they were sitting and enjoy the music, while they watched the other two hire a boat just beneath, and take their water excursion of half an hour or go, till they should choose to come back and join the sitters on the Esplanade, when they would all start homeward together.

“Nothing could have pleased the other two restless ones better than this arrangement; and Emily and James watched them go down to the boatman below and choose one of the little yellow skiffs, and walk carefully out upon the little plank that was laid on trestles to enable them to get alongside the craft. They saw Stephen hand Olive in, and take his seat facing her; when they were settled they waved their hands to the couple watching them, and then Stephen took the pair of aculls and pulled off to the tune beat by the band, she steering through the other boats skimming about, for the sea was as smooth as glass that evening, and pleasure-seekers were rowing everywhere.

“How pretty they look moving on, don’t they ? said Emily to James (as I've been aggured). ‘They both enjoy it equally. In everything their likings are the same,’