I disengaged my hands from the shawl I was shrouded in, and, overwhelmed by a sense of my new responsibility, did as I was told without a word. And, as there was not much steering required, I fell to thinking of Laurence. I had had to talk a great deal during the last two days; but whenever I was not talking my thoughts flew back at once to him, as they did now. “You are not thinking of me,” said Mr. Carruthers quietly. I started, blushed, and pulled the wrong line at once. “Never mind,” said he meekly--“only it’s ungrateful. He isn’t half so much absorbed in you as I am.” “Absorbed in me! I was thinking of--of Mrs. Manners.” “Happy Mrs. Manners, to be able to call up such a smile of beatitude on the face of a beautiful girl!” “Who did you think it was, Mr. Carruthers?” “If I tell you, you will upset me, or command me to land you at once.” “No, I won’t. And you wouldn’t pay any attention if I did.” “Let me come and sit by you, and I’ll tell you. We can drift.” So he came and sat by my side, and directed our course by splashing in one of the sculls, first on one side and then on the other, as we went on talking. “Why is it,” he asked suddenly, “that a woman never cares for the man who loves her best?” The question, which was quite new to me, startled me. “Doesn’t she--ever?” I asked anxiously. “I--I am afraid not,” said he, in a very low voice, bending his face to mine with a sad look in his eyes that troubled me. “But how is she to tell?” I asked tremulously. “I think she can tell best by the look in his eyes when they are bent on her,” he whispered, with a long steady gaze which disconcerted me. I turned away my head. “If,” he went on, still in the same soft voice quite close to my ear, “she raises her lips to his and then tries to read in his eyes the emotion he feels for her--” “But I did,” said I quickly, turning to him with my heart beating fast at the remembrance of Laurence’s first kiss. Mr. Carruthers drew back, stroked his mustache, and looked at me in quite a different manner. “You have not lived all your life in the country, Miss Christie, I think,” said he dryly. And I saw in a moment, by the change in his look and voice, what I had done. He had been making love to me, while I was thinking of nothing but Laurence. I put out my hand to his very gently, and said-- “Don’t be offended with me, Mr. Carruthers. I dare say all you say is true; but I am so fond of him that I cannot help thinking he does love me best.” I said this just to comfort him, for I could not really have doubted Laurence for the world. He took my hand and kissed it, but not, I thought, as if he cared about it very much, and then he said we had better think about getting back; so he turned the boat round and put up the sail, and, the wind having freshened a little, we got back in a very short time, not talking much; but we were quite good friends again, for my mingled delight and fear amused Mr. Carruthers.