‘Twas too far gone to correct, and so I said nothing. After another pause she tried to look roguish and said, “Did you not chastise the waiter for his interruption yesterday?”
What could I say but that I feared she had already rewarded him for so opportune an entrance.
“I regretted it as much as you possibly could,” she said, softly looking down at the beaten path.
It was abrupt, perhaps unkind, but I inquired if she would take a glass of water, as we were just then near the springs. She assented with a slightly reproachful look, and we approached the circular railing, which was surrounded by a throng of health-seeking drinkers, all eagerly waiting for the glasses from the long whirling dippers.
It was the same crowd that is always there. The stylish young lady, who puts her glass down after the third sip; the pale young man with the large Adam’s apple, which goes up and down his throat like the piston of a pump, carrying down whole gills of water at every gulp; the tall school girl, with her hair plaited in ribbons, leaning over to the glass and holding her dress back with one hand from its drippings; the fat bad child, his mother holding a glass to his mouth, and resting her hand on his head as if it was the faucet she had to hold open for the water to run down; and the delicate, meek boy, who has been brought to the springs by his father, who is now standing by, watching with deep interest and a notch stick the glasses he takes. Poor little fellow! standing with a Hogarth’s curve in his shoulders, both hands grasping the glass, he swigs away, while the veins and leaders in his neck swell and tighten, and the dark lines under his eyes grow deeper, and his eyelids redder, as they disappear behind the rising edge of the tumbler. He takes it down and blows out: “How many’s that, pa?” and receiving the plaudit, “Five, my dear boy,” is led away to the hotel, to spend the day in his room, instead of playing himself into health with other children.
When Miss Finnock and I had left the pagoda, and were walking up the hill towards the hotel, she made a pretence of pondering over something, and suddenly said:
“Mr. Smith, will you tell me something if I ask you?”
“Most assuredly, Miss Finnock, if it is in my power to do so.”
“Well, I want to know—no, I can’t ask you now, I’ll wait till we part at the hotel.”
When we ascended the steps I begged to know her question.