'Would the young girl understand, or accept, my hint?
'When, on the following day, I betook me to the bend of the river in my boat, she was not there. I waited long, and reluctantly pulled away with a certain emotion of pique. But, on the next day again, at the same hour, I saw her light skirt flitting among the silver birches, and at once crept inshore. I had cut some fresh fern roots for her, in place of those she had forgotten.
'"Ah, how thoughtful and kind of you," she exclaimed, as she gave me her hand, and allowed me to lead her on board, quite as a matter of course.
'"You will have a little row to-day?" said I.
'"A very tiny one it must be, then; I am so afraid of mamma," she replied; and in another minute we were skimming over the silvery water.
'"Have you mentioned to your mamma your meeting with me?" I inquired.
'"With you—a stranger? Oh, I dare not, Captain Fotheringhame."
'"You know my name, then!"
'"I saw in a newspaper, by the merest chance, that you were a guest of Lord Rothiemay's."
'For certain cogent reasons of my own, I could not help colouring like a great schoolboy at this peer's name, as I had been involved in something closer than a mere flirtation with a daughter of his; but in the present instance, while feeling already inclined to be rather cousinly, I resolved to remain incog. as long as I could. I knew that she would not mention my name at home, and so resolved to abandon myself to the perilous charm of her society during the absence of the Rothiemays in London. I admit freely that I was wrong, selfish in this, and severely was I punished in the end.