carelessly--when we stretched out our legs beneath the table, let our
napkins fall, unheeded, to the floor, and found time to more critically
examine the smoky ceiling than we had hitherto been able to do--when we
rested our glasses at arm's-length upon the table, and felt good, and
thoughtful, and forgiving.

Then Harris, who was sitting next the window, drew aside the curtain and
looked out upon the street.

It glistened darkly in the wet, the dim lamps flickered with each gust,
the rain splashed steadily into the puddles and trickled down the
water-spouts into the running gutters. A few soaked wayfarers hurried
past, crouching beneath their dripping umbrellas, the women holding up
their skirts.

"Well," said Harris, reaching his hand out for his glass, "we have had a
pleasant trip, and my hearty thanks for it to old Father Thames--but I
think we did well to chuck it when we did. Here's to Three Men well out
of a Boat!"

And Montmorency, standing on his hind legs, before the window, peering
out into the night, gave a short bark of decided concurrence with the
toast.

[Picture: Neptune drinking a toast]

Footnotes.

{287} Or rather _were_. The Conservancy of late seems to have
constituted itself into a society for the employment of idiots. A good
many of the new lock-keepers, especially in the more crowded portions of
the river, are excitable, nervous old men, quite unfitted for their post.

{311} A capital little out-of-the-way restaurant, in the neighbourhood
of ---, where you can get one of the best-cooked and cheapest little
French dinners or suppers that I know of, with an excellent bottle of
Beaune, for three-and-six; and which I am not going to be idiot enough to
advertise.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE MEN IN A BOAT***

******* This file should be named 308.txt or 308.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/308

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project