ANTONIA Five years before the journey just described Shelton had stood one afternoon on the barge of his old college at the end of the summer races.

He had been "down" from Oxford for some years, but these Olympian contests still attracted him.
The boats were passing, and in the usual rush to the barge side his arm came in contact with a soft young shoulder.

He saw close to him a young girl with fair hair knotted in a ribbon, whose face was eager with excitement.

The pointed chin, long neck, the fluffy hair, quick gestures, and the calm strenuousness of her grey-blue eyes, impressed him vividly.
"Oh, we must bump them!" he heard her sigh.
"Do you know my people, Shelton ?" said a voice behind his back; and he was granted a touch from the girl's shy, impatient hand, the warmer fingers of a lady with kindly eyes resembling a hare's, the dry hand-clasp of a gentleman with a thin, arched nose, and a quizzical brown face.
"Are you the Mr.Shelton who used to play the 'bones' at Eton ?" said the lady.

"Oh; we so often heard of you from Bernard! He was your fag, was n't he?
How distressin' it is to see these poor boys in the boats!" "Mother, they like it!" cried the girl.
"Antonia ought to be rowing, herself," said her father, whose name was Dennant.
Shelton went back with them to their hotel, walking beside Antonia through the Christchurch meadows, telling her details of his college life.