looked longingly at us, but three out of the four in our boat were
as cross and dissatisfied as they could be; and it made it worse to hear
them enjoying themselves in the other boat; Vere's trills of laughter,
and Lady Mary's gentlemanly "Ha, ha!" ringing out in response to the
murmur of the men's voices. When you are on land with the wrong people
there is always the chance of a change, but you _do_ feel so "fixed" in
a boat! I simply longed to reach the lock, and felt as cross as two
sticks, until suddenly I met Mr Carstairs' eyes, looking, oh, so sad
and hopeless, and I felt so sorry that I simply had to rouse up to cheer
him. He must know perfectly well that Vere doesn't care for him, but he
seems as if he could not help caring for her, and staying on and on,
though he is miserable all the time, I like him! He has a good look in
his face, and talks sensibly about interesting things, instead of
everlastingly chaffing or paying compliments, which seems to be the
fashion nowadays. I think I shall favour his suit, and try to help him.

I talked, and he looked first bored, and then amused, and in the end
quite interested and happy, so that we drew up by the bank to join the
others in quite a cheerful mood, much to my relief. It is humiliating
to look left out in the cold, however much you may feel it.

Vere was flushed, and unlike herself somehow. She fussed over the
laying out of the supper, and it wasn't like Vere to fuss, and whenever
she wanted anything done she always turned first of all to Will Dudley,
and half the time he was looking the other way and never noticed what
she ask, when poor Mr Carstairs did it at once and got snubbed for his
pains.

I was the youngest, and had to do all the uninteresting things, such as
unpacking the spoons and forks, and taking the paper wrappings off the
tumblers, while the others laid out the provisions and quarrelled over
the best arrangement. But it was fun when we all sat down and began to
eat. The Japanese lanterns were tied to the trees overhead, and made
everything look bright and cheery, for the moon had hidden itself behind
the clouds, and it had been just a wee bit cheerless the last half-hour.
We heated the soup over a little spirit-lamp, and had lobster salad on
dainty little paper plates, and cold chicken and cutlets, and all sorts
of delicious sweets and fruit, and we all ate a lot, and groaned and
said how ill we should be in the morning, and then ate som