CHAPTER V.
ON THE RIVER
HOW wonderful the country seemed to the London child! Everything was strange and beautiful. And though Juliet would not confess how surprised she felt, yet by little looks and words her aunt and cousins knew that she was taking in fresh ideas every minute.
They asked her how she slept. She replied that she could not sleep well because it was so dreadfully quiet; if it had not been for the noise of the "buses" a long way off, and those folks that came home late and creaked their door, she would not have been able to go to sleep at all. "My ears was all stretched like," said Juliet, "and wanted something to work on."
When they told how the distant buses was the roar of the weir, and the late-comers a party of gentlemen managing the lock for themselves, she tried to appear as if she quite understood, but she did not succeed.
"Some of them stay out late and let themselves through at 2 a.m., and some of them get up early and let themselves through at 3 a.m., but it is none of my business to get out of bed for pleasure-boats." Thus said Mr. Rowles.
"Who are they?" asked Juliet.