"Oh yes--sleeping quite sound. He won't wake yet," she said

hurriedly.

They went with the crowd down Cardinal Street, where they presently

reached the bridge, and the gay barges burst upon their view. Thence

they passed by a narrow slit down to the riverside path--now dusty,

hot, and thronged. Almost as soon as they had arrived the grand

procession of boats began; the oars smacking with a loud kiss on the

face of the stream, as they were lowered from the perpendicular.

"Oh, I say--how jolly! I'm glad I've come," said Arabella. "And--it

can't hurt my husband--my being away."

Advertisement..

On the opposite side of the river, on the crowded barges, were

gorgeous nosegays of feminine beauty, fashionably arrayed in green,

pink, blue, and white. The blue flag of the boat club denoted the

centre of interest, beneath which a band in red uniform gave out the

notes she had already heard in the death-chamber. Collegians of all

sorts, in canoes with ladies, watching keenly for "our" boat, darted

up and down. While she regarded the lively scene somebody touched

Arabella in the ribs, and looking round she saw Vilbert.

"That philtre is operating, you know!" he said with a leer. "Shame

on 'ee to wreck a heart so!"

"I shan't talk of love to-day."

"Why not? It is a general holiday."

She did not reply. Vilbert's arm stole round her waist, which act

could be performed unobserved in the crowd. An arch expression

overspread Arabella's face at the feel of the arm, but she kept her

eyes on the river as if she did not know of the embrace.

The crowd surged, pushing Arabella and her friends sometimes nearly

into the river, and she would have laughed heartily at the horse-play

that succeeded, if the imprint on her mind's eye of a pale,

statuesque countenance she had lately gazed upon had not sobered her

a little.

The fun on the water reached the acme of excitement; there were

immersions, there were shouts: the race was lost and won, the pink

and blue and yellow ladies retired from the barges, and the people

who had watched began to move.

"Well--it's been awfully good," cried Arabella. "But I think I must

get back to my poor man. Father is there, so far as I know; but I

had better get back."

"What's your hurry?"

"Well, I must go... Dear, dear, this is awkward!"

At the narrow gangway where the people ascended from the riverside

path to the bridge the crowd was literally jammed into one hot

mass--Arabella and Vilbert with the rest; and here they remained

motionless, Arabella exclaiming, "Dear, dear!" more and more

impatiently; for it had just occurred to her mind that if Jude were

discovered to have died alone an inquest might be deemed necessary.




Most Popular