“What of the boat? Is it lost?”
“No. It will be found easily enough in the morning. The damage is trifling. How splendid you were!”
“Please don’t. I haven’t said a word to you, and I don’t mean to.”
“But——”
“Well, say it, if you must.”
“I am not going to compliment you in the ordinary terms. Just this—nature intended you to be a soldier’s bride, Miss Vanrenen.”
“Nature, being feminine, may promise that which she does not always mean to carry out. Besides, I don’t know many soldiers.... It is charming here, by the river’s edge, but I must remember that you are soaked to the skin. Where are we, exactly?”
“About four miles from the hotel, by water: perhaps a mile and three-quarters as the crow flies.”
“How far as a girl walks?”
“Let us try,” he said briskly. “We seem to have landed in a meadow. If we cross it, all my efforts to save that muslin frock will count as naught, since there is sure to be a heavy dew on the grass after this fine day. Suppose we follow the bank a little way until we reach some sort of a path. Will you take my hand?”