Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/225

“That’s true,’ said James.

“They would have made s handsome pair if they had married,’ said she.

“'Yes, said he. ‘Tis a pity we should have parted ’em,’

"Don’t talk of that, James,’ said she. ‘For better or for worse we decided to do as we did, and there’s an end of it.’

“They sat on after that without speaking, side by side, and the band played as before; the people strolled up and down, and Stephen and Olive shrank smaller and smaller as they shot straight out to sea, The two on shore used to relate how they saw Stephen stop rowing a moment, and take off hie coat to get at his work better; but James’s wife sat quite still in the stern, holding the tiller-ropes by which she steered the boat. When they bad got very small indeed she turned her head to shore.

"'She is waving her handkerchief to us,’ said Stephen’s wife, who thereupon pulled out her own, and waved it as a retarn signal.

“The boat’s course had been a little awry while Mrs. James neglected her steering to wave her handkerchief to her husband and Mrs. Stephen; but now the light skiff went straight onward again, and they could soon see nothing more of the two figures it contained than Olive’s light mantle and Stephen's white shirt-sleeves behind.

“The two on-the shore talked on. "T'was very curious—our changing partners at Tony Kytes’s wedding,’ Emily declared. ‘Tony was of a fickle nature by all account, and it really seemed as if his character had infected us that night. Which of you two was it that first proposed not to marry aa we were enaged ?' “'H’m—I can’t remember at this moment,’ says