It's certainly going to the Manor. There are no other houses out in that
direction. Do look, Captain Bertram."

"Lor, Matty, you are so curious!" exclaimed her sister Sophy, who
overheard these remarks from her position as bow oar. "As if Captain
Bertram cared! You always do so fuss over little things, Matty. Even if
there are visitors coming to the Manor, I'm sure the captain doesn't
care. He is not like us who never see anybody. Are you, Captain
Bertram?"

"I beg your pardon," said the captain, waking put of a reverie into
which he had sunk. "Did you speak, Miss Bell?" he continued, turning
with a little courteous movement, which vastly became him, towards the
enamored Matty.

"I said a cab was going up the hill," said Matty.

"Oh, really! A cab _is_ an interesting sight, particularly a
Northbury cab. Shall I make a riddle for you on the spot, Miss Bell?
What is the sole surviving curiosity still to be found out of Noah's
ark?"

Matty went off into her usual half-hysterical laughter.

"Oh! I do declare, Captain Bertram, you are too killingly clever for
anything," she responded. "Oh, my poor side--I'll die if I laugh any
more. Oh, do have mercy on me! To compare that poor cab to Noah's ark!"

"I didn't; it isn't the least like the ark, only I think it must once
have found a shelter within that place of refuge."

"Oh! oh! oh! I am taken with such a stitch when I laugh. You are too
witty, Captain Bertram. Sophy, you must hear what the captain has said.
Oh, you killing, funny man--you must repeat that lovely joke to Sophy."

"Excuse me, it was only meant for Miss Matty's ears."

Matty stopped laughing, to blush all over her face, and Sophy thought it
more decorous to turn her back on the pair.

"Does not that green boat belong to Miss Meadowsweet?" interrupted
Bertram. "Look, Miss Bell, I am sure that is Miss Meadowsweet's boat."

(He had seen it for the last ten minutes, and had been secretly hoping
that Mrs. Bell would unconsciously steer in that direction; she was
going the other way, however, and he was obliged to speak.)

"Yes, that's Beatrice," said Matty, in an indifferent tone. "She
generally goes for a row in the evening."

"All alone like that?"

"Yes, Mrs. Meadowsweet is such a coward. She is afraid of the water."

"Poor Miss Meadowsweet, how sad for her to be by herself!"

Matty gave a furtive and not too well-pleased glance at her captain.

"Bee likes to be alone," she said.

"I should