Part 33 (1/2)
A boat is an aard place for a person afflicted with self-consciousness Katherine would have been thankful for so none, she rushed into nervous speech instead
”Were you in danger? Was the Mary wrecked?” she asked, miserably conscious of the unsteadiness of her voice, yet feeling altogether too nervous to remain silent
”No,” he said ”We have had a very easy and prosperous tih, unfortunately, we lost one of our boats on the way out-the boat picked up by Oily Dave, which has made all the trouble We fell in with a lot of white porpoises; so the take has been a valuable one, and the h Nick Jones felt his spirits rather dashed bya pennon of hood frohed: she could iure Mrs Jones ht would have on the susceptible nerves of a Bay fisherreat faith in Mrs Jenkin's judgh I have wondered how she could be so persistently hopeful in the face of such evidence as we had”
”And you yourself-how did you feel about it? Would it have one under, dear?” he asked, with a caressing note in his tone that she had never heard there before
For answer she jerked her head round, staring at the tops of the pine trees, with the blue sky behind the save the world of happiness which had suddenly opened before her astonished eyes
It see tiular splash of the oars, then Jervis said quietly: ”Are you quite sure that you are not afraid to marry a poor lance, then asked, a trifle unsteadily: ”What do you her, of course I have told you how miserably poor s are easier with me now; but there is a streak of modesty in me somewhere, and I have been afraid to ask for what I wanted,” he said, with a certain wistfulness of intonation which brought Katherine's glance round again
”You need not have been afraid,” she said softly
”Because why?” he asked, in the tone of one who meant to be answered
Katherine looked at the tops of the pine trees again, but, finding no help there, let her gaze drop to the dancing water, and finally faltered in a very low voice: ”Because love is better than ”
He bent forward until he could look into her downcast face, then said earnestly: ”You mean, then, it makes no difference to you what my worldly position may chance to be?”
”Of course not; why should it?” she asked, her glancehis now in surprise at his earnestness
Their progress up river was rather slow after that, and it was so over an hour later before they reached the second portage Astor M'Kree had started for the swan-shooting by that tihted wife to screa safely at anchor in the river
”Poor Astor! He has been that down he could scarcely take his food,” said Mrs M'Kree, wiping away the tears which sheer happiness had brought into her eyes
”Get an extra big supper ready for him, then, for I expect you will find his appetite has co ”You can tell hiet on with that new boat as fast as he can, and ill na?” asked Mrs M'Kree, who had suddenly become very serious, as she looked from Jervis to Katherine, whose face was a study in blushes
”No, I ao now, for we due path, and I should not be surprised if half the dogs in the neighbourhood are there, saet back”
”I hope not, or e will all have been throay,” said Katherine, who could not help s at the bewilderment on the face of Mrs M'Kree
There was no need to row going down the river; they just sat side by side and let the boat drift on the current, while they talked of the present and the future Katherine remembered her other journey down, earlier in the afternoon, and the bitter, black misery which had kept her co down the river]
”What a difference things s?” he de of when I let the boat drift down this afternoon,” she said ”The pine trees looked so glooreat, black spruces yonder on the bank made me think of the decorations on funeral hearses years and years ago, the sort of thing one sees only in pictures; but now--”
”What do they let you think of now?” he asked, holding her hand in a tighter clasp, as the boat swept slowly past the funereal spruces
”Oh! they rounds in Montreal, or of the SwissEurope', as the Yankees say,” and she laughed happily at her wild flights of fancy