"You are; and ever since you beat the Champion in the race with the Adieno, I have looked upon you as a hero. I have often wished that I might see you close to."
She was close enough to me now to make me shiver when I looked at her, she was so wet and drabbled.
"Perhaps I am a kind of one-horse hero among the boys," I added, for the sake of saying something.
"And among the girls, too," said she, promptly, if not boldly, though there was a degree of simplicity in her manner which prevented me from giving her words an unfavorable construction. "I have heard them in Cannondale and Parkville tell what a bold, brave fellow you are."
"I am very much obliged to them and to you for the good opinion of me. If you have confidence in me, that will answer my present purpose."
She looked curiously at me; and taking advantage of this favorable current of sentiment, I put the Splash about on the other tack, so that she was again headed towards Cannondale. Bob looked anxiously from Kate to me, and from me to Kate again. He expected another storm of emotion from her, and so did I; but I had decided upon my course, and was fully determined to carry it out, even if it broke the heartstrings of my fair passenger. I was sorry to be so ungallant as to resist the will of a young lady, but my conscience would not let me interfere with the domestic arrangements of Mrs. Loraine, without giving her a chance to defend herself.
"They say you are a smart boy, Ernest Thornton," added she, apparently without noticing the change in the course of the boat.
"Perhaps I am—I don't know," I replied; "I am afraid if I take you over to Parkville, people will think I am smarter than I ever was before."
"Why?" asked she, bestowing a painfully anxious glance upon me.
"Don't you think it would be rather smart for Bob Hale and me to run away with a young lady like you?"