'Never mind,' he said. 'You shan't go on the launch.' Gudrun flushed quickly at his rebuke.
There were a few moments of silence. Gerald, like a sentinel, was
watching the people who were going on to the boat. He was very
good-looking and self-contained, but his air of soldierly alertness was
rather irritating.
'Will you have tea here then, or go across to the house, where there's
a tent on the lawn?' he asked.
'Can't we have a rowing boat, and get out?' asked Ursula, who was
always rushing in too fast.
'To get out?' smiled Gerald.
'You see,' cried Gudrun, flushing at Ursula's outspoken rudeness, 'we
don't know the people, we are almost COMPLETE strangers here.' 'Oh, I can soon set you up with a few acquaintances,' he said easily.
Gudrun looked at him, to see if it were ill-meant. Then she smiled at
him.
'Ah,' she said, 'you know what we mean. Can't we go up there, and
explore that coast?' She pointed to a grove on the hillock of the
meadow-side, near the shore half way down the lake. 'That looks
perfectly lovely. We might even bathe. Isn't it beautiful in this
light. Really, it's like one of the reaches of the Nile--as one
imagines the Nile.' Gerald smiled at her factitious enthusiasm for the distant spot.
'You're sure it's far enough off?' he asked ironically, adding at once:
'Yes, you might go there, if we could get a boat. They seem to be all
out.' He looked round the lake and counted the rowing boats on its surface.
'How lovely it would be!' cried Ursula wistfully.
'And don't you want tea?' he said.
'Oh,' said Gudrun, 'we could just drink a cup, and be off.' He looked from one to the other, smiling. He was somewhat offended--yet
sporting.
'Can you manage a boat pretty well?' he asked.
'Yes,' replied Gudrun, coldly, 'pretty well.' 'Oh yes,' cried Ursula. 'We can both of us row like water-spiders.' 'You can? There's light little canoe of mine, that I didn't take out
for fear somebody should drown themselves. Do you think you'd be safe
in that?' 'Oh perfectly,' said Gudrun.
'What an angel!' cried Ursula.
'Don't, for MY sake, have an accident--because I'm responsible for the
water.' 'Sure,' pledged Gudrun.
'Besides, we can both swim quite well,' said Ursula.
'Well--then I'll get them to put you up a tea-basket, and you can
picnic all to yourselves,--that's the idea, isn't it?' 'How fearfully good! How frightfully nice if you could!' cried Gudrun
warmly, her colour flushing up again. It made the blood stir in his
veins, the subtle way she turned to him and infused her gratitude into
his body.