'Why, I asked you to trim the boat.'
'What did I do? I merely sat down.'
He didn't like to say that she shouldn't sit down with a bump, and took his place.
'If you like,' she said graciously, 'I'll relieve you there, presently.'
'How do you mean—relieve me?'
'I mean I'll row—I'll sit in the stern—row!'
'Perhaps you've forgotten the names of the different parts of a boat.
Madame Frabelle?'
'Oh, I think not, Mr Ottley. It's a good while since I was on the river, but it's not the sort of thing one forgets, and I'm supposed to have rather a good memory.'
'I'm sure you have—a wonderful memory—still, where I'm sitting is not the stern.'
There was a somewhat sulky silence. They admired the scenery of the river. Madame Frabelle said she loved the distant glimpses of the grey old palace of the Tudors, and asked him if he could imagine what it was like when it was gay all day with the clanking of steel and prancing horses and things.