"Was the old film all right? Did they print well?" Gay nodded. "It always was a wonderful picture," she said. "Us for the tall timber," she said—"when they come out." The final proofs being corrected and enveloped, Gay and Lee, innocent and bored of face, announced that, as there was nothing to do, they thought they would row the mail down to the village. It was a seven-mile row, but that was nothing out of the ordinary for them and it was arranged that the Streak should be sent after them in case they showed signs of being late for lunch. Gay rowed with leisurely strokes, while Lee, seated in the stern, busied herself with a pair of scissors and a pot of paste. She was giving the finally corrected proofs that still more final correcting which she and Gay had agreed to be necessary. They had decided that the centrepiece of the advertisement—a mere general view of The Camp—though very charming in its way, "meant nothing," and they had made up their unhallowed minds to substitute in its place one of those "fortunate[Pg 26] snap-shots," the film of which Gay had—happened to preserve. [Pg 26] In this photograph the six Darling sisters were seated in a row, on the edge of The Camp float. Their feet and ankles were immersed. They wore black bathing-dresses, exactly alike, and the bathing-dresses were of rather thin material—and very, very wet. The six exquisite heads perched on the six exquisite figures proved a picture which, as Lee and Gay admitted, might cause even a worthy young man to leave home and mother. It was not until they were half-way home that Lee suddenly cried aloud and hid her face in her hands. "For Heaven's sake," exclaimed Gay, "trim boat, and what's the matter anyway?" "Matter?" exclaimed Lee; "that picture of us sits right on top of the line Prices Rather High. And it's too late to do anything about it!" Gay turned white and then red, and then she burst out laughing. "'Tis awful," she said, "but it will certainly fetch 'em." [Pg 27] [Pg 27]
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