"Are you going to venture?" said Phineas to the lady.
"I should like it of all things if I were not afraid for my clothes.
Will you come?"
"I was never good upon the water. I should be sea-sick to a
certainty. They are going down beneath the bridge too, and we should
be splashed by the steamers. I don't think my courage is high
enough." Thus Phineas excused himself, being still intent on
prosecuting his search for Violet.
"Then neither will I," said Madame Goesler. "One dash from a peccant
oar would destroy the whole symmetry of my dress. Look. That green
young lady has already been sprinkled."
"But the blue young gentleman has been sprinkled also," said Phineas,
"and they will be happy in a joint baptism." Then they strolled along
the river path together, and were soon alone. "You will be leaving
town soon, Madame Goesler?"
"Almost immediately."
"And where do you go?"
"Oh,--to Vienna. I am there for a couple of months every year,
minding my business. I wonder whether you would know me, if you saw
me;--sometimes sitting on a stool in a counting-house, sometimes
going about among old houses, settling what must be done to save them
from tumbling down. I dress so differently at such times, and talk so
differently, and look so much older, that I almost fancy myself to be
another person.
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