CHAPTER V.
THE WATER OF YOUTH.
Usually the fond imaginations of the night
wear a different aspect in the dawn; but the
visions of the Misses Semaphore had lost
none of their attractiveness by morning.
Though, as before said, they tried now and
then to check their super-abounding joy by
the cold reflection that perhaps the explorer's
widow was a humbug, and the Water of
Youth liquid drawn from the nearest well,
they had much ado to keep their excitement
within bounds. Indeed their manner, despite
all efforts, betrayed such suppressed exultation
that Mr. Lorimer twice enquired of
Major Jones if he thought "the old girls"
were daft.
In the afternoon, punctually as the clock chimed a quarter to four, Miss Augusta, neatly dressed in black, and carrying Toutou in her arms, took her way to Gloucester Road
