Part 45 (2/2)
Away out, we could see our salain, out of the water ten feet in the air, darting and plunging in wide circles, like the htly, Miss Grant I professed to be able to fix your tackle and yet I did not exa it into use
It has probably been lying in a rusty condition for a year or so
”Well,--we cannot try again to-night, unlessin for a fresh spoon-hook”
”Oh!--let us stop now We have more fish already than we really require”
”Shall I row you in?” I asked
”Do you wish to go in?”
”Oh, dear, no! I could rery and sleepy,” I laughed
”All right!” she cried, ”let us row up into the Bay and watch the sun go down”
I pulled along leisurely, facingin the stern, with the sinking sun shi+ning in all its golden glory upon the golden glory of her
Mo the colours on the sold, then the gold turned to red, a sea of blood; from red to purple, from purple to the palest shade of heliotrope; and, as the sun at last dipped in the far west, the distant mountains threw back that sa for kind thoughts
We glided up the Bay, past Jake Meaghan's little hooon, where not a ripple disturbed that placid sheet of water: where the trees and rocks srew silent as the nature around us, awed by the splendours of the hushi+ng universe upon which we had been gazing
”It is beautiful! oh, so beautiful!” said”Let us stay here awhile I cannot think to go home yet”
She threw her sweater-coat round her shoulders, for, even in the height of suoes down
”Youto do so”
I thanked her, pulled in htedin a way only she could smile
”Do you know, I sometimes wonder,” she said reflectively, ”why it is that a man of your education, your prospective attainth and mental powers should keep to the bypaths of life, such as we find up here, when your felloith less intellect than you have, are in the cities, in thewith the world for power and fortune and getting, so to probe into your privacy, but what I have put into words has often recurred toyou Soo to theof a really successful business man”
”Do you really wonder why?” I smiled ”--And yet you profess to knowfor closer friendshi+ps
”If you proe and per you Mary, I shall answer your query”
”All right,--George,--it's a bargain,” she said ”Go ahead”
”Well! in the first place, I knohatand what it can cause I never cared for money any more than what could provide the plain necessities of life As for ambition to make and accumulate money;--God forbid that I should ever have it I leave such arubs and leeches”
Mary listened in undisguised interest
”Oh! I have had opportunities galore, but I always preferred the simpler way,--the open air, the sea and the quiet, the adventure of the day and the rest after a day well spent