“Oh, I don’t know,” I cried merrily; “which you like best—the blue one. There’s plenty of blue sky and blue sea now.”
“Yes, you’re right,” he said, eagerly. “And—you wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“Mind what, sir?”
“Showing me how to tie a sailor’s knot. I never could manage it properly.”
I showed him, and then he put on a white waistcoat and a blue serge jacket, like that worn by a yachting-man, buttoned up tightly, and looked at me again.
“It’s very kind of you to help me,” he said; “but do you think it’s fine enough for a straw hat?”
I shook my head as I pictured his round, plump, white face under the straight brim, and thought how comic it would look.
“I should wear that,” I said, pointing to a yachtsman’s blue woollen peaked cap. “There’s so much wind, and it will keep on better.”
“Of course; you are quite right,” he said. “It’s because you have had so much experience of the sea. But it isn’t quite so becoming as the straw, is it?”
I stared at him wonderingly as I thought how vain he must be; but I said it looked right enough.