"Oh, really! A cab is an interesting sight, particularly a Northbury cab. Shall I make a riddle for you on the spot, Miss Bell? What is the sole surviving curiosity still to be found out of Noah's ark?"
Matty went off into her usual half-hysterical laughter.
"Oh! I do declare, Captain Bertram, you are too killingly clever for anything," she responded. "Oh, my poor side—I'll die if I laugh any more. Oh, do have mercy on me! To compare that poor cab to Noah's ark!"
"I didn't; it isn't the least like the ark, only I think it must once have found a shelter within that place of refuge."
"Oh! oh! oh! I am taken with such a stitch when I laugh. You are too witty, Captain Bertram. Sophy, you must hear what the captain has said. Oh, you killing, funny man—you must repeat that lovely joke to Sophy."
"Excuse me, it was only meant for Miss Matty's ears."
Matty stopped laughing, to blush all over her face, and Sophy thought it more decorous to turn her back on the pair.
"Does not that green boat belong to Miss Meadowsweet?" interrupted Bertram. "Look, Miss Bell, I am sure that is Miss Meadowsweet's boat."
(He had seen it for the last ten minutes, and had been secretly hoping that Mrs. Bell would unconsciously steer in that direction; she was going the other way, however, and he was obliged to speak.)
"Yes, that's Beatrice," said Matty, in an indifferent tone. "She generally goes for a row in the evening."