The proposal was so unexpected that Monica looked up with a startled air. She had not thought of the man as likely to offer any kind of amusement.
‘It would be pleasant, I think,’ he added. ‘The tide is still running up. We might go very quietly for a mile or two, and be back as soon as you like.’
‘Yes, I should like it.’
He brightened up, and moved with a livelier step. In a few minutes they had chosen their boat, had pushed off, and were gliding to the middle of the broad water. Widdowson managed the sculls without awkwardness, but by no means like a man well trained in this form of exercise. On sitting down, he had taken off his hat, stowed it away, and put on a little travelling-cap, which he drew from his pocket. Monica thought this became him. After all, he was not a companion to be ashamed of. She looked with pleasure at his white hairy hands with their firm grip; then at his boots — very good boots indeed. He had gold links in his white shirt-cuffs, and a gold watch-guard chosen with a gentleman’s taste.
‘I am at your service,’ he said, with an approach to gaiety. ‘Direct me. Shall we go quickly — some distance, or only just a little quicker than the tide would float us?’
‘Which you like. To row much would make you too hot.’
‘You would like to go some distance — I see.’
‘No, no. Do exactly what you like. Of course we must be back in an hour or two.’
He drew out his watch.
‘It’s now ten minutes past six, and there is daylight till nine or after. When do you wish to be home?’
‘Not much later than nine,’ Monica answered, with the insincerity of prudence.
‘Then we will just go quietly along. I wish we could have started early in the afternoon. But that may be for another day, I hope.’
On her lap Monica had the little brown-paper parcel which contained her present. She saw that Widdowson glanced at it from time to time, but she could not bring herself to explain what it was.
‘I was very much afraid that I should not see you today,’ he said, as they glided softly by Chelsea Embankment.
‘But I promised to come if it was fine.’
‘Yes. I feared something might prevent you. You are very kind to give me your company.’ He was looking at the tips of her little boots. ‘I can’t say how I thank you.’
Much embarrassed, Monica could only gaze at one of the sculls, as it rose and fell, the water dripping from it in bright beads.
‘Last year,’ he pursued, ‘I went on the river two or three times, but alone. This year I haven’t been in a boat till today.’
‘You prefer driving?’
‘Oh, it’s only chance. I do drive a good deal, however. I wish it were possible to take you through the splendid country I saw a day or two ago — down in Surrey. Perhaps some day you will let me. I live rather a lonely life, as you see. I have a housekeeper; no relative lives with me. My only relative in London is a sister-inlaw, and we very seldom meet.’
‘But don’t you employ yourself in any way?’
‘I’m very idle. But that’s partly because I have worked very hard and hopelessly all my life — till a year and a half ago. I began to earn my own living when I was fourteen, and now I am forty-four — today.’
‘This is your birthday?’ said Monica, with an odd look the other could not understand.
‘Yes — I only remembered it a few hours ago. Strange that such a treat should have been provided for me. Yes, I am very idle. A year and a half ago my only brother died. He had been very successful in life, and he left me what I regard as a fortune, though it was only a small part of what he had.’
The listener’s heart throbbed. Without intending it, she pulled the tiller so that the boat began to turn towards land.
‘The left hand a little,’ said Widdowson, smiling correctly. ‘That’s right. Many days I don’t leave home. I am fond of reading, and now I make up for all the time lost in years gone by. Do you care for books?’
‘I never read very much, and I feel very ignorant.’
‘But that is only for want of opportunity, I’m sure.’
He glanced at the brown-paper parcel. Acting on an impulse which perturbed her, Monica began to slip off the loosely-tied string, and to unfold the paper.
‘I thought it was a book!’ exclaimed Widdowson merrily, when she had revealed a part of her present.
‘When you told me your name,’ said Monica, ‘I ought perhaps to have told you mine. It’s written here. My sisters gave me this today.’
She offered the little volume. He took it as though it were something fragile, and — the sculls fixed under his elbows — turned to the fly-leaf.
‘What? It is your birthday?’
‘Yes. I am twenty-one.’
‘Will you let me shake hands with you?’ His pressure of her fingers was the lightest possible. ‘Now that’s rather a strange thing — isn’t it? Oh, I remember this book very well, though I haven’t seen it or heard of it for twenty years. My mother used to read it on Sundays. And it is really your birthday? I am more than twice your age, Miss Madden.’
The last remark was uttered anxiously, mournfully. Then, as if to reassure himself by exerting physical strength, he drove the boat along with half a dozen vigorous strokes. Monica was rustling over the pages, but without seeing them.
‘I don’t think,’ said her companion presently, ‘you are very well contented with your life in that house of business.’
‘No, I am not.’
‘I have heard a good deal of the hardships of such a life. Will you tell me something about yours?’
Readily she gave him a sketch of her existence from Sunday to Sunday, but without indignation, and as if the subject had no great interest for her.
‘You must be very strong,’ was Widdowson’s comment.
‘The lady I went to see this afternoon told me I looked ill.’
‘Of course I can see the effects of overwork. My wonder is that you endure it at all. Is that lady an old acquaintance?’
Monica answered with all necessary detail, and went on to mention the proposal that had been made to her. The hearer reflected, and put further questions. Unwilling to speak of the little capital she possessed, Monica told him that her sisters might perhaps help her to live whilst she was learning a new occupation. But Widdowson had become abstracted; he ceased pulling, crossed his arms on the oars, and watched other boats that were near. Two deep wrinkles, rippling in their course, had formed across his forehead, and his eyes widened in a gaze of complete abstraction at the farther shore.
‘Yes,’ fell from him at length, as though in continuation of something he had been saying, ‘I began to earn my bread when I was fourteen. My father was an auctioneer at Brighton. A few years after his marriage he had a bad illness, which left him completely deaf. His partnership with another man was dissolved, and as things went worse and worse with him, my mother started a lodging-house, which somehow supported us for a long time. She was a sensible, good, and brave woman. I’m afraid my father had a good many faults that made her life hard. He was of a violent temper, and of course the deafness didn’t improve it. Well, one day a cab knocked him down in the King’s Road, and from that injury, though not until a year after, he died. There were only two children; I was the elder. My mother couldn’t keep me at school very long, so, at fourteen, I was sent into the office of the man who had been my father’s partner, to serve him and learn the business. I did serve him for years, and for next to no payment, but he taught me nothing more than he