214 WA TERSIDE SKETCHES. 



the time she had finished the winching-up process, but he 

 was in no hurry to move from his lair. He allowed her to 

 deposit the rod in the punt, to step aboard without assist- 

 ance, and, by all that was unworthy ! to cast off the chain. 



" A nut-brown maid she at last proved to be, and a very 

 business-like maid, too, with eyes for nothing but the punt 

 and the fishing materials. Briskly seating herself on the 

 thwart, she took the oars in her gloved hands, and pulled 

 out to the centre of the lake, the strokes regular, strong, 

 and determined. Full well I could appreciate her skill, for 

 a pretty figure my companion cut, in his ignorance of the 

 management of our[flat-bottomed craft. 



"Staring, and speechlessness, and wonderment did not 

 aid one, as you may suppose. There happened to be no 

 keepers about ; the constant breech-loader reports in the 

 distant plantations indicated their whereabouts with suffi- 

 cient plainness. So, with curiosity unsatisfied, and much 

 more absorbed and reluctant than is my wont with a sheet 

 of well-preserved water, rufHed by a westerly breeze, at my 

 will, I imitated the nut-brown maid, and pushed off, show- 

 ing how. much I was thinking of her by proceeding in a 

 contrary direction to that she had taken, and inwardly 

 resolving to sneak round about her neighbourhood before 

 the day was over. 



" Sport was, for a time, indifferent ; that is to say, in- 

 different for Garstanger Park. A few three-pounders were 

 returned to the water, an eight-pounder got away, and as- 

 luncheon-time drew nigh, the bag contained only half a 

 dozen fair fish. The fish, you see, so far as I was con- 

 cerned, were finding an unknown friend in the nut-brown, 

 maid. 



