Lady Scarlett looked at him uneasily, and Aunt Sophia tightened her lips.
“I should like to duck that fellow, and fish him out with the boat-hook,” thought the doctor.
Then the conversation ceased. Words seemed to be a trouble in the beauty of that evening scene, one so imprinted in the breasts of the spectators that it was never forgotten. The boat was kept from floating down with the quick racing current by a sharp dip of the oars just given now and then, while every touch of the long blue blades seemed to be into liquid gold and silver and ruddy gems. The wind had sunk, and, saving the occasional distance—softened lowing from the meads, no sound came from the shore; but always like distant thunder, heard upon the summer breeze, came the never-ceasing, low-pitched roar of the falling water at the weir.
The silence was at last broken by Scarlett, who said suddenly, making his hearers start: “Now then, Jack, one row round by the piles, and then home.”
“Right,” said the doctor, throwing the end of his cigar into the water, where it fell with a hiss; and bending to his oar, the light gig was sent up against the racing water nearer and nearer to the weir.
The ladies joined hands, as if there was danger, but became reassured as they saw their protectors smile; and soon after, quite near to where the river came thundering down from where it was six feet above their heads, instead of the stream forcing them away, the water seemed comparatively still, the eddy setting slightly towards the weir.
“Here’s one of the deep places,” said Scarlett. “I fished here once, and my plummet went down over twenty feet.”
“And you didn’t catch a gudgeon?” said the doctor.
“Not one,” replied Scarlett.
“How deep and black it looks!” said Prayle softly, as he laved one soft white hand in the water.