awry while Mrs. James neglected her
steering to wave her handkerchief to her husband and Mrs. Stephen; but
now the light skiff went straight onward again, and they could soon see
nothing more of the two figures it contained than Olive's light mantle
and Stephen's white shirt sleeves behind.

'The two on the shore talked on. "'Twas very curious--our changing
partners at Tony Kytes's wedding," Emily declared. "Tony was of a fickle
nature by all account, and it really seemed as if his character had
infected us that night. Which of you two was it that first proposed not
to marry as we were engaged?"

'"H'm--I can't remember at this moment," says James. "We talked it over,
you know; and no sooner said than done."

'"'Twas the dancing," said she. "People get quite crazy sometimes in a
dance."

'"They do," he owned.

'"James--do you think they care for one another still?" asks Mrs.
Stephen.

'James Hardcome mused and admitted that perhaps a little tender feeling
might flicker up in their hearts for a moment now and then. "Still,
nothing of any account," he said.

'"I sometimes think that Olive is in Steve's mind a good deal," murmurs
Mrs. Stephen; "particularly when she pleases his fancy by riding past our
window at a gallop on one of the draught-horses . . . I never could do
anything of that sort; I could never get over my fear of a horse."

'"And I am no horseman, though I pretend to be on her account," murmured
James Hardcome. "But isn't it almost time for them to turn and sweep
round to the shore, as the other boating folk have done? I wonder what
Olive means by steering away straight to the horizon like that? She has
hardly swerved from a direct line seaward since they started."

'"No doubt they are talking, and don't think of where they are going,"
suggests Stephen's wife.

'"Perhaps so," said James. "I didn't know Steve could row like that."

'"O yes," says she. "He often comes here on business, and generally has
a pull round the bay."

'"I can hardly see the boat or them," says James again; "and it is
getting dark."

'The heedless pair afloat now formed a mere speck in the films of the
coming night, which thickened apace, till it completely swallowed up
their distant shapes. They had disappeared while still following the
same straight course away from the world of land-livers, as if they were
intending to drop over the sea-edge into space, and never return to earth
again.

'The two on the