eft behind it a pleasant taste in the
minds of both the principals.

CHAPTER XIV

ON THE RIVER

For many a frivolous, festive year
I followed the path that I felt I must;
I failed to discover the road was drear,
And rather than otherwise liked the dust.
It led through a land that I knew of old,
Frequented by friendly, familiar folk,
Who bowed before Mammon, and heaped up gold,
And lived like their neighbours, and loved their joke.

It was a lovely summer's day when Lady Silverhampton collected her
forces at Paddingdon, conveyed them by rail as far as Reading, and then
transported them from the train to her steam-launch on the river. The
party consisted of Lady Silverhampton herself, Lord and Lady Robert
Thistletown, Lord Stonebridge, Sir Wilfred Madderley (President of the
Royal Academy), Cecil Farquhar, and Elisabeth.

"I'm afraid you'll be frightfully crowded," said the hostess, as they
packed themselves into the dainty little launch; "but it can't be
helped. I tried to charter a P. and O. steamer for the day; but they
were all engaged, like cabs on the night of a county ball, don't you
know? And then I tried to leave somebody out so as to make the party
smaller, but there wasn't one of you that could have been spared,
except Silverhampton; so I left him at home, and decided to let the rest
of you be squeezed yet happy."

"How dear of you!" exclaimed Lord Robert; "and I'll repay your kindness
by writing a book called How to be Happy though Squeezed."

"The word _though_ appears redundant in that connection," Sir Wilfred
Madderley remarked.

"Ah! that's because you aren't what is called 'a lady's man,'" Lord
Robert sighed. "I always was, especially before my unfortunate--oh! I
beg your pardon, Violet, I forgot you were here; I mean, of course, my
fortunate--marriage. I was always the sort of man that makes girls
timidly clinging when they are sitting on a sofa beside you, and
short-sighted when you are playing their accompaniments for them. I
remember once a girl sat so awfully close to me on a sofa in
mid-drawing-room, that I felt there wasn't really room for both of us;
so--like the true hero that I am--I shouted 'Save the women and
children,' and flung myself upon the tender mercies of the carpet, till
I finally struggled to the fireplace."

"How silly you are, Bobby!" exclaimed his wife.

"Yes, darling; I know. I've always known it; but the world didn't