merely stand out of the rush, not liking its destination. Here comes a
barge, the commander of which is devoted to me because he believes that
I am organizing a revolution for the abolition of lock dues and tolls.
We will go aboard and float down to Lyvern, whence you can return to
London. You had better telegraph from the junction to the college;
there must be a hue and cry out after us by this time. You shall have my
address, and we can write to one another or see one another whenever we
please. Or you can divorce me for deserting you."

"You would like me to, I know," said Henrietta, sobbing.

"I should die of despair, my darling," he said complacently. "Ship
aho-o-o-y! Stop crying, Hetty, for God's sake. You lacerate my very
soul."

"Ah-o-o-o-o-o-o-oy, master!" roared the bargee.

"Good arternoon, sir," said a man who, with a short whip in his hand,
trudged beside the white horse that towed the barge. "Come up!" he added
malevolently to the horse.

"I want to get on board, and go up to Lyvern with you," said Trefusis.
"He seems a well fed brute, that."

"Better fed nor me," said the man. "You can't get the work out of a
hunderfed 'orse that you can out of a hunderfed man or woman. I've bin
in parts of England where women pulled the barges. They come cheaper nor
'orses, because it didn't cost nothing to get new ones when the old ones
we wore out."