stly anxious about the fishing, and hoped that
we might not go so far to find nothing.

We found few fish anyhow. The water was as still as glass, and as clear;
the pike that would have taken our spinning bits of metal must have
been very dull-eyed pike indeed. Tita sat at the bow of the long punt
reading, while our boatman steadily and slowly plied his single oar.
Franziska was for a time eagerly engaged in watching the progress of
our fishing, until even she got tired of the excitement of rolling in an
immense length of cord, only to find that our spinning bait had hooked a
bit of floating wood or weed. At length Charlie proposed that he should
go ashore and look out for a picturesque site for our picnic, and he
hinted that perhaps Miss Franziska might also like a short walk to
relieve the monotony of the sailing. Miss Franziska said she would be
very pleased to do that. We ran them in among the rushes, and put them
ashore, and then once more started on our laborious career.

Tita laid down her book. She was a little anxious. Sometimes you could
see Charlie and Franziska on the path by the side of the lake; at other
times the thick trees by the water's side hid them.

The solitary oar dipped in the lake; the boat glided along the shores.
Tita took up her book again. The space of time that passed may be
inferred from the fact that, merely as an incident to it, we managed
to catch a chub of four pounds. When the excitement over this event had
passed, Tita said:

"We must go back to them. What do they mean by not coming on and telling
us? It is most silly of them."

We went back by the same side of the lake, and we found both Franziska
and her companion seated on the bank at the precise spot where we had
left them. They said it was the best place for the picnic. They asked
for the hamper in a businesslike way. They pretended they had searched
the shores of the lake for miles.

And while Tita and Franziska are unpacking the things, and laying the
white cloth smoothly on the grass, and pulling out the bottles for
Charlie to cool in the lake, I observe that the younger of the two
ladies rather endeavours to keep her left hand out of sight. It is a
paltry piece of deception. Are we moles, and blinder than moles, that we
should continually be made the dupes of these women? I say to her:

"Franziska, what is the matter with your left hand?"

"Leave Franziska's left hand alone," says Tita, severely.

"My dear," I repl