The doctor surveyed him with grave intentness. “You look,” he said at last, “something between Friar John and Bishop Berkeley.” He gave him a little push. “Go and talk to the girls while I buy them chocolates.”
Having paid the bill, he occupied himself in selecting with delicate nicety a little box of sweet-meats for each of his friends, choosing one for Nance with a picture of Leda and the Swan upon it and one for Linda with a portrait of the Empress Josephine.
As he leant over the counter, his eyes gleamed with a soft benignant ecstasy and he rallied the shop-woman about some heart-shaped confectionary adorned with blue ribbons.
Before Mr. Traherne rejoined them Nance had time to whisper to Linda, “They’re both a little excited, dear, but we needn’t notice it. They’ll be themselves in a moment. Men are all so babyish.”
Linda smiled faintly at this and nodded her head. She looked a little sad and a little pale.
Dr. Raughty soon appeared. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go down to the sea”; and in a low dreamy voice he murmured the following ditty:
“A boat—a boat—to cross the ferry!
And let us all be wise and merry,
And laugh and quaff and drink brown sherry!”