se.

The couple advanced at a slow pace; the skiff, Madeleine, was ready, when
at the moment of embarking therein they kissed each other, which caused
the public collected on the bridge to laugh, and Mr. Paul taking the
oars, they left also for La Grenonillere.

When they arrived it was just upon three o'clock and the large floating
cafe overflowed with people.

The immense raft, sheltered by a tarpaulin roof, is attached to the
charming island of Croissy by two narrow foot bridges, one of which leads
into the center of this aquatic establishment, while the other unites its
end with a tiny islet planted with a tree and surnamed "The Flower Pot,"
and thence leads to land near the bath office.

Mr. Paul made fast his boat alongside the establishment, climbed over the
railing of the cafe and then grasping his mistress's hand assisted her
out of the boat and they both seated themselves at the end of a table
opposite each other.

On the opposite side of the river along the market road, a long string of
vehicles was drawn up. Fiacres alternated with the fine carriages of the
swells; the first, clumsy, with enormous bodies crushing the springs,
drawn by a broken down hack with hanging head and broken knees; the
second, slightly built on light wheels, with horses slender and straight,
their heads well up, their bits snowy with foam, while the coachman,
solemn in his livery, his head erect in his high collar, waited bolt
upright, his whip resting on his knee.

The bank was covered with people who came off in families, or in gangs,
or two by two, or alone. They plucked blades of grass, went down to the
water, remounted the path, and all having attained the same spot, stood
still awaiting the ferryman. The clumsy punt plied incessantly from bank
to bank, discharging its passengers on to the island. The arm of the
river (named the Dead Arm) upon which this refreshment wharf lay,
appeared asleep, so feeble was the current. Fleets of yawls, of skiffs,
of canoes, of podoscaphs (a light boat propelled by wheels set in motion
by a treadle), of gigs, of craft of all forms and of all kinds, crept
about upon the motionless stream, crossing each other, intermingling,
running foul of one another, stopping abruptly under a jerk of the arms
to shoot off afresh under a sudden strain of the muscles gliding swiftly
along like great yellow or red fishes.

Others arrived incessantly; some from Chaton up the stream; others from
Bougival down