“Good Lord!  How did it go off?”

“He can’t remember, except that it did go off. He was drunk, too—­ drunk o’ purpose:  for, as he says very reas’nably, ’twas the only way he could find the courage.  The fellow isn’ without public spirit, if he’d only apply it the right way.  Toy tells me that he, for his part, saw it from his bedroom window—­the Town Quay wasn’t safe, wi’ the rocket-sticks fairly rainin’—­an’ the show wasn’ a bad show, if you looked at it horizontal; but the gentry on the yachts derived next to no enjoyment from it, bein’ occupied in gettin’ up their anchors.”

Before ’Bias could comment on this, a footstep—­light, yet audible between the tinkling notes of the musical box—­drew the gaze of the pair to a small window on the right, outside of which lay the gravelled approach to their bower.

“May I come in?” asked a voice—­a woman’s—­with a pretty hesitation in its note:  and Mrs Bosenna stood in the doorway.

“Please keep your seats,” she entreated as both arose awkwardly.  She added with a mirthful little laugh, “I heard the musical box playing away, and so I took French leave.  Now, don’t tell me that I’m an intruder!  It is only for a few minutes; and—­strictly speaking, you know—­the lease says I may enter at any reasonable time.  Is this a reasonable time?”

They assured her, but still awkwardly, that she was welcome at any time.  Captain Cai found her a chair.

“So this,” she said, looking around, “is where you sit together and talk disparagingly of our sex.  At least, that’s what Dinah assures me, though I don’t see how she can possibly know.”

“Ma’am!” said Cai, “we were talkin’, this very moment, o’ fireworks:  nothing more an’ nothing less.”

“Well, and you couldn’t have been talking of anything more to the point,” said Mrs Bosenna; “for, as it happens, it’s fireworks that brought me here.”

’Bias looked vaguely skyward, while “You don’t tell me, ma’am, those fellows are making trouble down in the town?” cried Cai.

“Eh?  I don’t understand. . . .  Oh, no,” she laughed when he explained his alarm, “I am afraid my errand is much more selfish.  You see, I positively dote on fireworks.”

She paused.

“Well,” said ’Bias, “that’s womanlike.”

“Hallo!” said Cai.  “How do you know what’s womanlike?”

“I am afraid it is womanlike,” confessed Mrs Bosenna hastily.  “And from Rilla Farm you get no view at all on Regatta night.  So I was wondering—­if you won’t think it dreadfully forward of me—­”

“You’re welcome to watch ’em from here, ma’am, if that’s what you mean,” said ’Bias.

“Or from my garden, ma’am, if you prefer it,” said Cai.

“Why should she?” asked ’Bias.

“Well, ’tis a yard or two nearer, for one thing.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes:  the other summer-house fronts a bit more up the harbour; t’wards the fireworks, that’s to say.”