He himself was taking extreme care of a pair of spotless flannels, and at one stage of the afternoon, I forget when, that suddenly struck me as almost funny enough to shriek aloud at—his care for his flannel bags and carelessness about everything else. It struck me as—I use the words quite literally—devilishly funny. It fascinated me, so that I could not keep from watching him. My eyes wandered from time to time to the other boats of our party and of other parties, moving on the shining river, but they always returned in less than a minute to him, irresistibly drawn. This galgenhumor almost mastered me as the paper again crept up to take another peep at him as he lolled, this time with Evie by his side, for Kitty had taken the other oar. It needed so little, so little imagination to look forward and see, strung out into the future, the results of that irrefutable Evidence in my pocket—the inquest at which I should not even be called as a witness—the funeral I need attend only as a mourner—the shock—the hushing up—and the certainty of everybody that they knew all about it! It was all horribly, horribly perfect....
A picnic? Oh yes, this was a picnic....
"Do take your coat off, Jeff—you'll be so much more comfortable—why, you're streaming!" This came from Kitty, who had the air of publicly possessing me, though only partly by reason of having paid for me, I think.
"Oh, I'm quite all right—really quite comfortable," I replied.
And then I thought of Evie, and that horrible humour rolled away from me. Evie. What about her? She spoke even then.
"Jeff's doing all the work," she said. "I'm sure Kitty and I could manage the boat quite well."
"Better stay as we are," I replied. "Archie and I wouldn't trim."
Yes, what about Evie?
Well, for her it was only a choice of sacrifices. The choice was not of my determining; I put that responsibility on him. There was still time; I would save him if I could; that was settled; but further than that I would not go. Should she fail to survive the shock it would be he, not I who had killed her. Better that, however....
If you can see what else I could have done, tell me. I am willing to learn.