"It would mean running away, wouldn't it?" said Bobby, still
subjunctive.
"I suppose so. Mamma and papa are so unreasonable."
"Di," said Bobby, "I don't believe you could ever be happy with me."
"The idea! I can too. You're going to be a great man--you know you are."
Bobby was silent. Of course he knew it--but he passed it over.
"Wouldn't it be fun to elope and surprise the whole school?" said Di,
sparkling.
Bobby grinned appreciatively. He was good to look at, with his big
frame, his head of rough dark hair, the sky warm upon his clear skin and
full mouth. Di suddenly announced that she would be willing to elope
_now_.
"I've planned eloping lots of times," she said ambiguously.
It flashed across the mind of Bobby that in these plans of hers he may
not always have been the principal, and he could not be sure ... But
she talked in nothings, and he answered her so.
Soft cries sounded in the centre of the stream. The boat, well out of
the strong current, was seen to have its oars shipped; and there sat
Dwight Herbert gently rocking the boat. Dwight Herbert would.
"Bertie, Bertie--please!" you heard his Ina say.
Monona began to cry, and her father was irritated, felt that it would be
ignominious to desist, and did not know that he felt this. But he knew
that he was annoyed, and he took refuge in this, and picked up the oars
with: "Some folks never can enjoy anything without spoiling it."
"That's what I was thinking," said Ina, with a flash of anger.
They glided toward the shore in a huff. Monona found that she enjoyed
crying across the water and kept it up. It was almost as good as an
echo. Ina, stepping safe to the sands, cried ungratefully that this was
the last time that she would ever, ever go with her husband anywhere.
Ever. Dwight Herbert, recovering, gauged the moment to require of him
humour, and observed that his wedded wife was as skittish as a colt. Ina
kept silence, head poised so that her full little chin showed double.
Monona, who had previously hidden a cooky in her frock, now remembered
it and crunched sidewise, the eyes ruminant.
Moving toward them, with Di, Bobby was suddenly overtaken by the sense
of disliking them all. He never had liked Dwight Herbert, his employer.
Mrs. Deacon seemed to him so overwhelmingly mature that he had no idea
how to treat her. And the child Monona he would like to roll in the
river. Even Di ... He fell silent, was silent on the walk home which was
the signal for Di to tease him steadily. The little being was afraid of
silence. It was too vast for her. She was like a butterfly in a dome.
But against that background of ruined occasion, Lulu walked homeward
beside Ninian. And all that night, beside her mother who groaned in her
sleep, Lulu lay tense and awake. He had walked home with her. He had
told Ina and Herbert about going to the city. What did it mean?
Suppose ... oh no; oh no!
"Either lay still or get up and set up," Mrs. Bett directed her at
length.