Lucinda checked another sigh , gathered up an escaped flutter of voile , and marched on . Past the lane a range of three silvery harvest fields sloped down to Peter Penhallow 's brook -- a wide , shallow stream bridged over in the olden days by the mossy trunk of an ancient fallen tree . When Lucinda and Romney arrived at the brook they gazed at the brawling water blankly . Lucinda remembered that she must not speak to Romney just in time to prevent an exclamation of dismay . There was no tree ! There was no bridge of any kind over the brook ! Here was a predicament ! But before Lucinda could do more than despairingly ask herself what was to be done now , Romney answered -- not in words , but in deeds . He coolly picked Lucinda up in his arms , as if she had been a child instead of a full grown woman of no mean avoirdupois , and began to wade with her through the water . Lucinda gasped helplessly . She could not forbid him and she was so choked with rage over his presumption that she could not have spoken in any case . Then came the catastrophe . Romney 's foot slipped on a treacherous round stone -- there was a tremendous splash -- and Romney and Lucinda Penhallow were sitting down in the middle of Peter Penhallow 's brook . Lucinda was the first to regain her feet . About her clung in heart-breaking limpness the ruined voile . The remembrance of all her wrongs that night rushed over her soul , and her eyes blazed in the moonlight . Lucinda Penhallow had never been so angry in her life . `` YOU D -- D IDIOT ! '' she said , in a voice that literally shook with rage . Romney meekly scrambled up the bank after her .
`` I 'm awfully sorry , XXXXX , '' he said , striving with uncertain success to keep a suspicious quiver of laughter out of his tone .
Lucinda Romney avoirdupois brawling choked days first limpness night voile