"Yes, pretty well; I've got the notes of them at home if you want them." "Bother the notes! Do you remember how regular I was?" "How should I? I didn't know you then." "Oh, you wicked story! You knew who I was perfectly well, you little witch, and you let me go on like that for two whole terms without making a sign. It was cruel of you." "Well, did you expect me to stop you in the street and say I was your cousin, when you had never taken the trouble to call on me?" "You know I thought you were at Girton. Father said you were, and there _is_ someone called German there." "Yes, and you went to Girton such a lot, didn't you?" "I could swear now when I think what an idiot I was." "Then don't do it, please, although I quite agree with you. And, of course, you were much too grand to come and see us at Christmas." "Confound it! I say, Betty, was it you who got me asked there?" "I certainly shouldn't think of doing so again. And it was mother who asked you last vacation. I had nothing to do with it." "Then it _was_ you. Betty, you are a dar----" "Now, then, be quiet, please." "You and John are coming to us in town for a week, directly after term." "Poor old John. I wonder whatever he would say if he saw me now!" They had now passed Clare again, and were gliding slowly along between the pleasant meadow and the great lawn towards King's bridge. "I say, Betty," said Lucius, "I don't want to frighten you, but who is that on the bridge?" "I should think the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Newnham waiting for us," answered Betty without turning round. "No, but really, I do believe it is John." Betty turned round and saw a man in a straw hat with a green and black ribbon leaning over the bridge. "Yes, it is," she said, blushing scarlet, but speaking quite unconcernedly, "he ought to be working. I shall blow him up for it." "Shall we turn round? He hasn't spotted us yet." "Turn round? Whatever for? You don't suppose I'm frightened of John, do you?" "I don't know. You look rather as if you were." "Of course I'm not. But I don't know what he will think, and I should look so idiotic if I began to explain." "What about that backwater?" "Is it very pretty?" "Yes, very. Hold your umbrella towards the bridge as we go round the corner and he won't see you. I'll pull my hat over my face." So the canoe glided under the little wooden bridge and into the still, shaded water beyond. The other girl, who was still walking about along the river bank, and had seen it disappear, waited for an hour, and then went away furious, half intending to report Miss Betty Jermyn to the authorities of her college. Directly she had gone, the canoe came sliding out into the river again. Betty was speaking. "I shouldn't much mind if John did see us now, should you, Lucius?" "Not a bit, darling," answered the happy Lucius. "But it wasn't John at all. I looked when you were holding the umbrella in front of your face."