"Will you get the boat I want before it grows too dark?"
"Yes, yes, I will, my darling! I can refuse you nothing," said the infatuated bridegroom as he walked down to the water's edge and forthwith hired the one she had set her heart on.
Then he came back to take her down to the boat.
It was a mere shell, as he had said; and though the boatman declared that it could easily carry six if required, it did not look as if it would safely bear more than two or three passengers at most.
They were soon floating out upon the water and down with the tide past the dingy colliers and the small trading vessels that were anchored there, and out among the coming and going sloops and schooners.
"Let me row toward that beautiful wooded shore. It is so lovely over there!" said Mary Grey, coaxingly.
"'Distance lends,' and so forth," smiled Craven Kyte, as he at once headed for the shore.
But the outgoing tide had left a muddy beach there, and so they had to keep at a respectful distance from it.
They rowed again to the middle of the river.
The afterglow had faded away, but the blue-black starlit sky was brilliantly reflected in the dark water.