Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/226

James. ‘We talked it over, you know, and no sooner said than done.”

“'Twas the dancing,’ said she. ‘People get quite crazy sometimes in a dance.’

"'They do,’ he owned.

"James—do you think they care for one another still ? asks Mrs. Stephen.

“James Hardcome mused, and admitted that perhaps a little tender feeling might flicker up in their hearts for a moment now and then, ‘Still, nothing of any account,’ he said. .

“I sometimes think that Olive is in Steve’s mind a good deal,’ murmurs Mrs. Stephen; ‘particularly when ahe pleases his fancy by riding past our window at a gallop on one of the draught-horses, . .. I never could do anything of that sort; I could never get over my fear of a horse.’

“'And I am no horseman, though I pretend to be on her account,’ murmured James Hardcome, ‘ But isn’t it almost time for them to turn and sweep round to the shore, as the other boating folk have done? I wonder what Olive means by steering away straight to the horizon like that? She has hardly swerved from a direct line seaward since they started.’

“No doubt they are talking, and don't think of where they are going,’ suggests Stephen’s wife.

"Perhaps so,’ said James. ‘I didn’t know Steve could row like that,’

“Oh yes,’ says she. ‘He often comes here on business, and generally has a pull round the bay.’

“I can hardly see the boat or them,’ says James again; ‘and it is getting dark.’

“The heedless pair afloat now formed a mere speck in the films of the coming night, which thickened space, till it completely swallowed up their distant shapes, They had disappeared while still following the same