“Oh, for pity’s sake, don’t, Captain Down!”
“Oh, well, I won’t. Now then, my dear lady, let’s get back to the bungalow, and you give me one of Morley’s best cigars—not those out of the old cedar box, please; one of those will do very well for Archie Maine when he comes—and I will sit down in the veranda and chat with you till the truants return; and then you can scold your niece, after giving Archie the bad cigar. That will be punishment enough for him, for he will be vain enough to try to smoke it, though a thin cigarette makes him poorly, poor fellow! Now then, how do you feel now?”
“Oh, better,” said Mrs Morley. “And you don’t think anything could have happened, Captain Down?”
“Nothing worse than that they have gone too far and are keeping you up.”
“But you don’t think that the boat has been upset?”
“Certainly not. Why should I?”
“Boats are such dangerous things.”
“Yes,” said the Captain quietly—“in the hands of those who don’t know how to use them. But Maine and your niece are not punting, and they have two of Dallas’s best men.”
“Yes,” said Mrs Morley, with a sigh of relief, as they reached the gate and made their way into the veranda.
“Thank you,” said the Captain, as Mrs Morley took a cigar-box from a shelf and then lit a cedar-wood match at the table lamp. “I wonder how the Doctor’s going on,” he continued, as he lit his cigar.