Good Lord!"-- he drew back and dropped the match--"it's a clergyman!" He clapped down the cover in haste, sprang to his feet, and lifting his hat, made her the discreetest of bows.

He was sober, now, as a judge.
"A thousand pardons, madam! I have seen nothing--believe me, nothing." He strode in haste to Old Jubilee's headstall and began to back him towards the boat.

The woman gazed at him for a moment in mere astonishment, then stepped quickly to his side.
"I didn' know," she stammered.

"You don't look nor talk like a bargee." Here her voice came to a halt, but in the dusk her eyes appeared to question him.
"Few of us are what we seem, ma'am," Mr.Mortimer sighed.

"Bargee for the nonce I am, yet gentleman enough to understand a delicate situation.
Your secret is safe with me, and so you may tell your--your friend." "Then you must a-seen them ?" she demanded.
"Them ?" echoed Mr.Mortimer.
"No," she went on hurriedly, mistaking his hesitation.