. Two girls on a barge. ceived bythe boat-people, and appeared to take an interestin all our impressions, particularly and generally,of barges and bargees, and the Grand JunctionCanal at large. And yet he wasnt a Reporter, for,two cleanly-looking barges passing at the moment,the men doffed their wide soft felt hats to him—athing they never did for us. He called out somegenial remark to them as the towing ropes met andcrossed, and a strange deference crept into theweather-beaten faces, a strange, wordless deferenceinto the way they answered him, almost patheticin its implicit, unquestioning con
. Two girls on a barge. ceived bythe boat-people, and appeared to take an interestin all our impressions, particularly and generally,of barges and bargees, and the Grand JunctionCanal at large. And yet he wasnt a Reporter, for,two cleanly-looking barges passing at the moment,the men doffed their wide soft felt hats to him—athing they never did for us. He called out somegenial remark to them as the towing ropes met andcrossed, and a strange deference crept into theweather-beaten faces, a strange, wordless deferenceinto the way they answered him, almost patheticin its implicit, unquestioning confidence. Andsomehow, just then, as the two barges passed onout of sight, it seemed to me that we had for amoment glimpsed an undercurrent—some motivepower sleeping silently between the boaters andourselves, or such as we—something that made allthings possible. For, travelling like this A dozen 98 TWO GIRLS ON A BARGE years ago through their canal, the boaters wouldhave looked on us as spies, they would by no means. ANL YET HE WASN T A REPORTER TWO GIRLS ON A BARGE 99 have regarded us as guests. Who was this, ourmost mysterious guest ! I telegraphed to Girton,and she answered in a comprehensively bewilderedglance ; the subject of them both was preparing to4 depart. Come up and see The Shanty when youpass, he said ; youll be within three miles of itto-morrow, and my girls would be delighted towelcome you. And as we were collectively determining to clearup this mystery and individually shirking theresponsibility, his eye fell and rested for a momenton the table and the blacking jar. So small anact may solve a mystery. For some intellectualshoeblack—whose name shall not be revealed forthe opprobrium it merits—had jauntily and in-securely balanced the blacking jar on a green bookwith a silver title. And the stranger, very properlyremonstrating, picked up the book to glance at itstitle page. Canal Adventures by Moonlight, hesaid, quietly, with a funny, rather inscrutabletwi
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