Beatrice | Page 8

there was great
risk in such a voyage. So after making one more fruitless suggestion
that they should try and reach the shore, taking the chance of rocks,
sunken or otherwise, and then walk home, to which Beatrice would not
consent, he accepted her offer.
"At the least you will allow me to paddle," he said, as she skilfully
brought the canoe right under his rock, which the tide was now high
enough to allow her to do.
"If you like," she answered doubtfully. "My hands are a little sore, and,
of course," with a glance at his broad shoulders, "you are much
stronger. But if you are not used to it I dare say that I should get on as
well as you."
"Nonsense," he said sharply. "I will not allow you to paddle me for five
miles."
She yielded without another word, and very gingerly shifted her seat so
that her back was towards the bow of the canoe, leaving him to occupy
the paddling place opposite to her.
Then he handed her his gun, which, together with the dead birds, she
carefully stowed in the bottom of the frail craft. Next, with great
caution, he slid down the rock till his feet rested in the canoe.
"Be careful or you will upset us," she said, leaning forward and
stretching out her hand for him to support himself by.
Then it was, as he took it, that he for the first time really saw her face,
with the mist drops hanging to the bent eyelashes, and knew how
beautiful it was.

CHAPTER III
A CONFESSION OF FAITH
"Are you ready?" he said, recovering himself from the pleasing shock
of this serge-draped vision of the mist.
"Yes," said Beatrice. "You must head straight out to sea for a little --not
too far, for if we get beyond the shelter of Rumball Point we might
founder in the rollers--there are always rollers there--then steer to the
left. I will tell you when. And, Mr. Bingham, please be careful of the
paddle; it has been spliced, and won't bear rough usage."
"All right," he answered, and they started gaily enough, the light canoe
gliding swiftly forward beneath his sturdy strokes.
Beatrice was leaning back with her head bent a little forward, so that he
could only see her chin and the sweet curve of the lips above it. But she
could see all his face as it swayed towards her with each motion of the
paddle, and she watched it with interest. It was a new type of face to
her, so strong and manly, and yet so gentle about the mouth--almost too
gentle she thought. What made him marry Lady Honoria? Beatrice
wondered; she did not look particularly gentle, though she was such a
graceful woman.
And thus they went on for some time, each wondering about the other
and at heart admiring the other, which was not strange, for they were a
very proper pair, but saying no word till at last, after about a quarter of
an hour's hard paddling, Geoffrey paused to rest.
"Do you do much of this kind of thing, Miss Granger?" he said with a
gasp, "because it is rather hard work."
She laughed. "Ah," she said, "I thought you would scarcely go on
paddling at that rate. Yes, I canoe a great deal in the summer time. It is
my way of taking exercise, and I can swim well, so I am not afraid of
an upset. At least it has been my way for the last two years since a lady
who was staying here gave me the canoe when she went away. Before

that I used to row in a boat--that is, before I went to college."
"College? What college? Girton?"
"Oh, no, nothing half so grand. It was a college where you get
certificates that you are qualified to be a mistress in a Board school. I
wish it had been Girton."
"Do you?"--you are too good for that, he was going to add, but changed
it to--"I think you were as well away. I don't care about the Girton
stamp; those of them whom I have known are so hard."
"So much the better for them," she answered. "I should like to be hard
as a stone; a stone cannot feel. Don't you think that women ought to
learn, then?"
"Do you?" he asked.
"Yes, certainly."
"Have you learnt anything?"
"I have taught myself a little and picked up something at the college.
But I have no real knowledge, only a smattering of things."
"What do you know--French and German?"
"Yes."
"Latin?"
"Yes, I know something of it."
"Greek?"
"I can read it fairly, but I am not a Greek scholar."
"Mathematics?"

"No, I gave them up. There is no human nature