ept on talking about neckties. I assure you, Mr Loring,
I went to sleep--at least I dozed--and when I woke up he was still
talking about neckties. But then his feet began to get cold. I suppose
it was because they were wet. The way he grumbled about his feet being
cold! I remember he turned his coat collar up. He wanted to get on
shore and walk, but he'd taken us a long way up the lake by that time,
and he saw we were absolutely lost. So he put the oars in the boat and
stood up and stamped his feet. It might have upset the boat.'

'How did it end?' I inquired.

'Well, Annie and I caught the train, but only just. You see it was a
special train, so they kept it for us, otherwise we should have been in
a nice fix.'

'So you have special trains in these parts?'

'Why, of course! It was the annual outing of the teachers of St Luke's
Sunday School and their friends, you see. So we had a special train.'

At this point the duettists came to the end of a movement, and Mr
Brindley leaned over to us from his stool, glass in hand.

'The railway company practically owns Ilam,' he explained, 'and so they
run it for all they're worth. They made the lake, to feed the canals,
when they bought the canals from the canal company. It's an artificial
lake, and the railway runs alongside it. A very good scheme of the
company's. They started out to make Ilam a popular resort, and they've
made it a popular resort, what with special trains and things. But try
to get a special train to any other place on their rotten system, and
you'll soon see!'

'How big is the lake?' I asked.

'How long is it, Ol?' he demanded of Colclough. 'A couple of miles?'

'Not it! About a mile. Adagio!'

They proceeded with Brahms.

'He ran with you all the way to the station, didn't he?' Mrs Brindley
suggested to Mrs Colclough.

'I should just say he did!' Mrs Colclough concurred. 'He wanted to get
warm, and then he was awfully afraid lest we should miss it.'

'I thought you were on the lake practically all night!' I exclaimed.

'All night! Well, I don't know what you call all night. But I was back
in Bursley before eleven o'clock, I'm sure.'

I then contrived to discover the Gazette in an unsearched pocket, and I
gave it to Mrs Colclough to read. Mrs Brindley looked over her shoulder.

There was no slightest movement of depreciation on Mrs Colclough's
part. She amiably smiled as she perused the GAZETTE'S version of Fuge's
version of the lake episode