"Stop—stop!" cried Sir Richard.
"And I am quite certain," said the colonel, "that I owe to him the joy of calling Arabella mine."
Sir Richard Blunt came now to a halt, as he said—
"Stop, all of you, or I will not go one step further. If we get into this kind of talk, who is to say where it will end? Let us enjoy ourselves, and make it a rule to say anything but revert to the past. It has its joys and its sorrows, but it had better upon this occasion be left to itself."
"Agreed—agreed," said everybody.
The barge was a very handsome one. Indeed Sir Richard Blunt had borrowed it of one of the city companies for the occasion, and beneath the gay awning they could all sit with perfect ease.
And now in the course of another five minutes they were going down the river, quite at a slashing pace, towards the old Tower; and as they were animated by the many pleasing sights upon the river, their conversation soon became animated and spirited.
"What is that?—A wherry coming towards us from the Temple-stairs," said the colonel.
All eyes were bent upon the wherry, which shot out from the little landing-place by the side of the Temple Gardens, and presently they, with one accord, cried out—
"It's Hector!"