“Now, James, don’t be absurd. Who ever thought you did?”
“No one, aunt,” said Lady Scarlett. “But you will go with us, will you not?”
“No, my dear; you know how I hate the water. It is not safe.”
“But James is so careful, aunt. I’d go anywhere with him.”
“Of course you would, my child,” said Aunt, Sophia shortly. “A wife should trust in her husband thoroughly and well.”
“So should a maiden aunt in her nephew,” said Scarlett, laughing. “Come, auntie, you shan’t be drowned.”
“Now, James, my dear, don’t try to persuade me,” said the lady, pulling up her black lace mittens in a peculiar, nervous, twitchy way.
“I’ll undertake to do the best for you, if you are drowned, Miss Raleigh,” said the doctor drily. “I’m pretty successful with such cases.”
“Doctor Scales!” cried Aunt Sophia.
“Fact, my dear madam. An old friend of mine did the Royal Humane Society’s business for them at the building in Hyde Park; and one very severe winter when I helped him, we really brought back to life a good many whom you might have quite given up.”