them to
undertake it; but one had to get back from Niagara somehow, and they had
been told at the hotel there that the boats were very comfortable. She
had never been more uncomfortable in her life; as for the rapids, they
made her ill, and they were obviously so dangerous that she should not
even look at them again. Then, from having done all the talking and most
of the eating, she fell quite silent, and gave her daughter a chance to
speak to my wife. She had hitherto spoken only to her mother, but now
she asked Mrs. March if she had ever been down the St. Lawrence before.

When my wife explained, and asked her whether she was enjoying it, she
answered with a rapture that was quite astonishing, in reference to her
mother's expressions of disgust: "Oh, immensely! Every instant of it,"
and she went on to expatiate on its peculiar charm in terms so
intelligent and sympathetic that Mrs. March confessed it had been part
of our wedding journey, and that this was the reason why we were now
taking the trip.

The young lady did not seem to care so much for this, and when she
thanked my wife in leaving the table with her mother, and begged her to
thank the gentlemen who had so kindly given up their places, she made no
overture to further acquaintance. In fact, we had been so simply and
merely made use of that, although we were rather meek people, we decided
to avoid our beneficiaries for the rest of the day; and Mr. Glendenning,
who could not, as a clergyman, indulge even a just resentment, could as
little refuse us his sympathy. He laughed at some hints of my wife's
experience, which she dropped before she left us to pick up a meal from
the lukewarm leavings of the _Corinthian's_ dinner, if we could. She
said she was going forward to get a good place on the bow, and would
keep two camp-stools for us, which she could assure us no one would get
away from her.

We were somewhat surprised then to find her seated by the rail with the
younger lady of the two whom she meant to avoid if she meant anything by
what she said. She was laughing and talking on quite easy terms with her
apparently, and "There!" she triumphed as we came up, "I've kept your
camp-stools for you," and she showed them at her side, where she was
holding her hand on them. "You had better put them here."

The girl had stiffened a little at our approach, as I could see, but a
young girl's stiffness is always rather amusing than otherwise, and I
did not mind it. N