Meanwhile, Lucile’s cavalier, Gordon Ridgley, had helped her carefully along the deck and established her in a corner from which he had declared the view “incomparable.”
“This is rippin’ luck,” he cried, seizing a couple of handy chairs and dragging them to the rail. “The bally things knew we were coming!”
Lucile laughed happily. She liked being taken care of; it made her think of Jack. Meanwhile, the breeze, which had been steadily rising, had grown perceptibly stronger.
“Oh, this is wonderful!” breathed Lucile, leaning forward and drinking in the beautiful scene. “I’ve wanted a chance to sail in a real motor boat all my life.”
“Well, does it meet with your expectations?”
“It’s beginning to. You know, I was crazy about the river yesterday—it was all so different from anything I had ever seen and a thousand times more interesting; but now I can see that I had only begun to appreciate it.”
“Oh, it’s not such a bad old river,” he said, letting his gaze wander out over the water. “I suppose it appeals more to strangers than it does to us natives. For instance, 135 I would much rather see your Hudson River than this.”
“I suppose so,” said Lucile, dreamily, and then added, almost as though speaking to herself, “But the Hudson, though, of course, it is beautiful and much larger than this, is in a new country, while the Thames—why, the very name makes you think of those old times when there were noble knights and beautiful ladies and jousts and all sorts of interesting things. In those days the knights seemed to go around with a chip on their shoulders all the time. If you happened to step on their foot or any other little thing, they’d flare up, throw a glove or something in your face—I should think it must have hurt sometimes, too—and command you to joust for the honor of knight or lady——” She broke off with a little laugh and added, demurely, “I don’t know what you must think of me—I’m not always like this, you know.”
“I think you’re——” he began, but just what he thought was never expressed, for Mr. Payton and a friend, coming upon them unexpectedly, uttered a surprised exclamation.
“Oh, here you are!” he said, amusement in the glance he gave them. “The young folks are about to start the Victrola; don’t you want to join them?”