第62章 A FEW CRUSTED CHARACTERS(7)

'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 so,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 sculls 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 assured)."They both enjoy it equally.In everything their likings are the same.""That's true,"said James.

"They would have made a 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 his 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 had 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 return 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."'Twas 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 as we were engaged?""H'm--I can't remember at this moment,"says 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 she 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?Iwonder 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.""O 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 apace,till it completely swallowed up their distant shapes.They had disappeared while still following the same straight course away from the world of land-livers,as if they were intending to drop over the sea-edge into space,and never return to earth again.

'The two on the shore continued to sit on,punctually abiding by their agreement to remain on the same spot till the others returned.

The Esplanade lamps were lit one by one,the bandsmen folded up their stands and departed,the yachts in the bay hung out their riding lights,and the little boats came back to shore one after another,their hirers walking on to the sands by the plank they had climbed to go afloat;but among these Stephen and Olive did not appear.

"What a time they are!"said Emily."I am getting quite chilly.Idid not expect to have to sit so long in the evening air."'Thereupon James Hardcome said that he did not require his overcoat,and insisted on lending it to her.

'He wrapped it round Emily's shoulders.