130 THE OPEN Alli. 



inhabited, for there was a fire smouldering on the 

 bank, and some linen that had been washed spread 

 on the bushes to bleach. All the windows of this 

 gipsy-van of the river were wide open, and the air 

 and light entered freely into every part of the dwelling- 

 house under which flowed the stream. A lady was 

 dressing herself before one of these open windows, 

 twining up large braids of dark hair, her large arms 

 bare to the shoulder, and somewhat farther. I 

 immediately steered out into the channel to avoid 

 intrusion; but I felt that she was regarding me 

 with all a matron's contempt for an unknown man 

 — a mere member of the opposite sex, not introduced, 

 or of her " set." I was merely a man — no more 

 than a horse on the bank, — and had she been in her 

 smock she would have been just as indifferent. 



Certainly it was a lovely morning; the old red 

 palace of the Cardinal seemed to slumber amid its 

 trees, as if the passage of the centuries had stroked and 

 soothed it into indolent peace. The meadows rested ; 

 even the swallows, the restless swallows, glided in an 

 effortless way through the busy air. I could see this, 

 and yet I did not quite enjoy it ; something drew me 

 away from perfect contentment, and gradually it 

 dawned upon me that it was the current causing an 

 unsuspected amount of labour in sculling. The force- 

 less particles of water, so yielding to the touch, which 

 slipped aside at the motion of the oar, in their count- 

 less myriads ceaselessly flowing grew to be almost a 

 solid obstruction to the boat. I had not noticed it 

 for a mile or so ; now the pressure of the stream was 

 becoming evident. I persuaded myself that it was 



