Both shores had a line of very pretty houses, low and not large, standing back a little way from the river; they were mostly built of red brick and roofed with tiles, and looked, above all, comfortable, and as if they were, so to say, alive, and sympathetic with the life of the dwellers in them.

There was a continuous garden in front of them, going down to the water's edge, in which the flowers were now blooming luxuriantly, and sending delicious waves of summer scent over the eddying stream.

Behind the houses, I could see great trees rising, mostly planes, and looking down the water there were the reaches towards Putney almost as if they were a lake with a forest shore, so thick were the big trees; and I said aloud, but as if to myself-- "Well, I'm glad that they have not built over Barn Elms." I blushed for my fatuity as the words slipped out of my mouth, and my companion looked at me with a half smile which I thought I understood; so to hide my confusion I said, "Please take me ashore now: I want to get my breakfast." He nodded, and brought her head round with a sharp stroke, and in a trice we were at the landing-stage again.

He jumped out and I followed him; and of course I was not surprised to see him wait, as if for the inevitable after-piece that follows the doing of a service to a fellow- citizen.

So I put my hand into my waistcoat-pocket, and said, "How much ?" though still with the uncomfortable feeling that perhaps I was offering money to a gentleman.
He looked puzzled, and said, "How much?
I don't quite understand what you are asking about.