The row, slow and dreamy, up-stream to Teddington-lock, would, even had there been no unlawful and much-prized lover--of whom, explain it as you will, Honor was more than half afraid--by her side, have been simply delightful. The river was so purely clear that the water-weeds beneath its pellucid surface showed brightly, freshly green; and then the long low islets, with the graceful willow-boughs, vivid with the hues of early spring, dipping their last-opened buds into the laving stream, and the banks, verdant and fair, and cattle-sprinkled--all combined to make a Breughal-like picture of spring verdure and beauty. Notwithstanding a certain amount of horsey conversation, flirting, covert as well as open, was the order of the afternoon. Both Mrs. Foley and her sister were adepts at that truly feminine and easily-acquired accomplishment. To look the thing they meant not, to understand or not understand the ingenious _double entendre_, to give the little hope that hinders from despair, and _only_ the _little_ hope, lest the excited lover should presume, were arts in which _ces dames_, the unprofessional demi-monde of gay middle life, were thoroughly skilled. It required more audacity than Honor would have previously believed that she possessed to cope with rivals such as these, but, _champagne aidant_, she got through the female duty well; and the dinner which succeeded the aquatic excursion owed not a little of its success to the lively spirits lending added charms to the powerful influence of beauty. The hour of ten had struck by the town clocks, and the many wine-bottles on the table of No. 3 room were near to emptying, before it occurred to any of the party therein assembled that the night was fine and warm and starlight, and that in the gardens of the hotel a fresher, purer air could be imbibed than that which reminded them somewhat too forcibly of the good things they had been imbibing. At a conjugal hint from the Colonel, his watchful and obedient wife suggested that the moon had risen, and was looking lovely over the river. A turn on the terrace would be delightful, she thought; and as her proposal met with no opposition, they made themselves an impromptu drawing-room under the starry canopy of heaven. “What a lovely night! how glad I am to have seen this! The moonlight never looked to me so soft and beautiful before!”