Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/122

 athletic Englishman, and it was rather apparent that Miss O'Connor thought so.

"Then let Giles take Rose," said Virginia, "and Count Dessalines can take me."

Rose O'Connor flushed; Giles looked surprised; the great, mobile face of Dessalines lighted with pleasure; Virginia, catching the expression, half regretted her whimsical suggestion.

The plan was adopted and they embarked with much laughter. Dessalines and Virginia were the last to start, and then the host discovered that the fresh shell-lac of the canoe was still soft from the sun and sent one of the servants for a robe with which to cover it. The others had already rounded the first bend of the river when he shoved the canoe clear of the little jetty.

Their course was up stream, across the miniature lake, along the edge of flower-flecked banks, under the shade of the pollards, skirting the rim of the rushes where the great savage pike, sunning their backs in the shallows, rushed for the deep water, leaving furrowed trails.

Virginia, sitting well forward to balance as much as possible the great weight of Dessalines who knelt slightly abaft the beam, had little regard for the sweetness of the summer day. She was sitting in a loose heap of cushions thrown upon a rug of flaming crimson, the corners of which trailed in the water with an oriental disregard of precision. Dessalines knelt, knees braced well apart to better balance the unstable craft, and the paddle in his hand seemed the toy of a child. His linen shirt was unbuttoned at the neck, and the great cords stood in smooth ridges against the snowy fabric. He had rolled his sleeves over the elbows, and under the black, satiny 112