"Perhaps you can pipe a tune upon it," she said, dipping
the paddle tentatively.
"You put me under great obligations," I declared.
"Are all the girls at St. Agatha's as amiable?"
"I should say not! I'm a great exception,-and-I
really shouldn't be talking to you at all! It's against
the rules! And we don't encourage smoking."
"The chaplain doesn't smoke, I suppose."
"Not in chapel; I believe it isn't done! And we
rarely see him elsewhere."
She had idled with the paddle so far, but now lifted
her eyes and drew back the blade for a long stroke.
"But in the wood-this morning-by the wall!"
I hate myself to this day for having so startled her.
The poised blade dropped into the water with a splash;
she brought the canoe a trifle nearer to the wharf with
an almost imperceptible stroke, and turned toward me
with wonder and dismay in her eyes.
"So you are an eavesdropper and detective, are you?
I beg that you will give your master my compliments!
I really owe you an apology; I thought you were a gentleman!"
she exclaimed with withering emphasis, and
dipped her blade deep in flight.
I called, stammering incoherently, after her, but her
light argosy skimmed the water steadily. The paddle
rose and fell with trained precision, making scarcely a
ripple as she stole softly away toward the fairy towers
of the sunset. I stood looking after her, goaded with
self-contempt. A glory of yellow and red filled the west.
Suddenly the wind moaned in the wood behind the line
of cottages, swept over me and rippled the surface of the
lake. I watched its flight until it caught her canoe and
I marked the flimsy craft's quick response, as the shaken
waters bore her alert figure upward on the swell, her
blade still maintaining its regular dip, until she disappeared
behind a little peninsula that made a harbor near
the school grounds.
The red tam-o'-shanter seemed at last to merge in the
red sky, and I turned to my canoe and paddled cheerlessly
home.