Charles Audley then spoke of the shouts and violence of the pursuit—admitting, however, that it would have been harmless had not the boat turned so as to expose her stern in the midst of the two streams. An oar must have missed the stroke, but whose it was he could not say; and he finally mentioned having brought out poor Yates, who had been sucked down by the eddy, and carried to the opposite bank. The Coroner asked in a complimentary voice whether he had not been more successful in other cases; and Charlie, colouring, allowed that he had brought two more out of the river.
There Angela started up. Clement had tried to keep her till she was called for, but the Coroner, seeing her agitation, courteously expressed himself willing to take her evidence. Her cheeks were crimson, and she spoke breathlessly. 'I only want to say it was nobody's fault but mine. They would not have raced with us if I had not begun singing. And then they would have cleared us, but I got frightened when we came to the meeting of the currents, and my stroke failed. That made the stern swing round. And I am ready to take the consequences.'
'No consequences need be apprehended, Miss Underwood,' said the Coroner, a kind old man. 'No one can impute blame to a young lady for a very natural alarm; and every one must feel this voluntary explanation extremely honourable to you.'
He was making a cruel cut if he had only known it, but he was full of consideration for her; and the young men themselves gave their evidence in a very different style from the defensive and offensive one intended; nor was the question of their sobriety, on which they had brought up the landlord of the Hook and Line, even alluded to, before the verdict of accidental death was returned.
Clement had the feeling that this was the most generous action of Angela's life, and yet she had carried it out in so defiant a manner that it was not easy to give her full credit; and before he could address her, she had sped away, between skimming and striding, and was across the churchyard before he had reached the door.
Bernard relieved himself by a low whistle.
'Well,' said Charlie, 'I thought her pluck indomitable. I never supposed that she capsized us.'
'Why, whom did you think it could be?'
'Well, if you must know, I thought Lance just the spoon to do it—a musician, and he'd been looking moon-struck all day.'
'Much you know about Lance! Why, I'd have taken my oath beforehand it was nobody's doing but Angel's. It's just the way with that sort of girl that runs into what she's no call to—'