There is a time when even Buszard's most expensive confections cease to charm. When this time had arrived for Betty, she said, "I don't much care if I don't get the others now, but I know I shall want them to-morrow, so paddle on, Lucius. I'm much more pleased with you now."
"Thank you, Betty," said Lucius, and the canoe proceeded on its way, under the Clare, Hostel, and Trinity Bridges with the graceful willows sweeping the water, round the curve where the classical front of the Trinity library looks severely towards the paddocks and the elms, and under the wall of the Master of Trinity's garden, where a blossoming tree showed a mass of delicate pink against the red-tile gables of Neville's Court, under yet another bridge flanked by the stone eagles of St. John's, and between the walls of that college until they reached their goal, the covered bridge, which, through no merit of its own, has usurped the name of the Bridge of Sighs.
"Thank you," said Betty. "Now be quick and get back. What a sell for that girl! and we haven't met anybody to matter either."
"Plenty of time for that. We've got to get all the way back again. I didn't tell you before, because I thought you would be frightened, but you remember Dizzy whom you met in my rooms last term when your mother was up?"
"Yes, I hope he isn't coming out, is he?"
"Well, I'm afraid he is. It's an old standing engagement; he promised to row a party of Newnham dons—seven of them—on the Backs this morning."
For one moment Betty's face blanched with terror. Then she said, "You are a donkey, Lucius. Hurry up, please."
But Lucius wasn't going to hurry up. He was very well content with his present position. Betty reclined opposite to him in a graceful attitude, the brilliant colour of the Japanese umbrella a setting to her pretty face.
"Why did you put on that pretty frock?" asked Lucius.
"Because it is so hot; just like summer."