Never can I forget that scene; sunshine glittering on the pond, the silent forests and towering peaks, the blue sky overhead, the dead trees where thousands of bats hung in nauseating clusters, thicker than the leaves in Valembrosa--and Kitten Brown and I, cross-legged upon our pneumatic raft, hands clasped in pledge of deathless devotion to science and a fraternity unending. "And how about that girl?" he asked. "What girl?" "Angelica White?" "Well," said I, "_what_ about her?" "Does she go with the lake or with the fish?" "What do you mean?" I asked coldly, withdrawing my hand from his clasp. "I mean, which of us gets the first chance to win her?" he said, blushing. "There's no use denying that we both have been bowled over by her; is there?" I pondered for several moments. "She is an extremely intelligent girl," I said, stalling. "Yes, and then some." After a few minutes' further thought, I said: "Possibly I am in error, but at moments it has seemed to me that my marked attentions to Miss White are not wholly displeasing to her. I may be mistaken--" "I think you are, Smith." "Why?" "Because--well, because I seem to think so." I said coldly: "Because she happened to faint away in your arms last night is no symptom that she prefers you. Is it?" "No." "Then why do you seem to think that tactful, delicate, and assiduous attentions on my part may prove not entirely unwelcome to this unusually intelligent--" "Smith!" "What?" "Miss White is not only a trained nurse, but she also is about to receive her diploma as a physician." "How do you know?" "She told me." "When?" "When you were building the fire last night. Also, she informed me that she had relentlessly dedicated herself to a eugenic marriage." "When did she tell you _that_?" "While you were bringing in a bucket of water from the lake last night. And furthermore, she told me that _I_ was perfectly suited for a eugenic marriage." "_When_ did she tell you _that_?" I demanded. "When she had--fainted--in my arms." "How the devil did she come to say a thing like that?" He became conspicuously red about the ears: "Well, I had just told her that I had fallen in love with her--" "Damn!" I said. And that's all I said; and seizing a paddle I made furiously for shore. Behind me I heard the whirr of the piano wire as Brown started the electric reel. Later I heard him clamping the hood on the hydroscope; but I was too disgusted for any further words, and I dug away at the water with my paddle. In various and weird stages of morning deshabille the heavy artillery came down to the shore for morning ablutions, all a-row like a file of ducks. They glared at me as I leaped ashore: "I want my breakfast!" snapped Mrs. Batt. "Do you hear what I say, guide? And I don't wish to be kept waiting for it either! I desire to get out of this place as soon as possible." "I'm sorry," I said, "but I intend to stay here for some time."