'Did he? How long had you to wait?'
'I don't know--it seemed long enough before a most welcome boat appeared, with some men in it, and Triton in an agony. They would never have found me but for him, for my voice was gone; indeed the next thing I remember was lying on the grass in the park, and Markham saying, 'Well, sir, if you do wish to throw away your life, let it be for something better worth saving than Farmer Holt's vicious old ram!'
'In the language of the great Mr. Toots,' said Charles 'I am afraid you got very wet.'
'Were you the worse for it?' said Amy.
'Not in the least. I was so glad to hear it was Holt's! for you must know that I had behaved very ill to Farmer Holt. I had been very angry at his beating our old hound, for, as he thought, worrying his sheep; not that Dart ever did, though.
'And was the ram saved?'
'Yes, and next time I saw it, it nearly knocked me down.'
'Would you do it again?' said Philip.
'I don't know.'
'I hope you had a medal from the Humane Society,' said Charles.
'That would have been more proper for Triton.'
'Yours should have been an ovation,' said Charles, cutting the o absurdly short, and looking at Philip.
Laura saw that the spirit of teasing was strong in Charles this morning and suspected that he wanted to stir up what he called the deadly feud, and she hastened to change the conversation by saying, 'You quite impressed Guy with your translation of Fra Cristoforo.'
'Indeed I must thank you for recommending the book,' said Guy; 'how beautiful it is!'
'I am glad you entered into it,' said Philip; 'it has every quality that a fiction ought to have.'
'I never read anything equal to the repentance of the nameless man.'
'Is he your favourite character?' said Philip, looking at him attentively.
'Oh no--of course not--though he is so grand that one thinks most about him, but no one can be cared about as much as Lucia.'
'Lucia! She never struck me as more than a well-painted peasant girl,' said Philip.
'Oh!' cried Guy, indignantly; then, controlling himself, he continued: 'She pretends to no more than she is, but she shows the beauty of goodness in itself in a--a--wonderful way. And think of the power of those words of hers over that gloomy, desperate man.'
'Your sympathy with the Innominato again,' said Philip. Every subject seemed to excite Guy to a dangerous extent, as Laura thought, and she turned to Philip to ask if he would not read to them again.