I'll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier Page B

She was grand. Pity her name was Carrie. I liked these people, they were fun. So easy to talk to. They did not make one feel a fool at all.
    ‘Mixed crowd on this boat,’ I said, and then remembered my own appearance, which didn’t look up to much.
    ‘They’re just terrible,’ said Carrie,‘I don’t believe there’s anyone here of any social standing at all.’
    What a remark! I was glad Jake was not there. Never mind. A girl with a face like that could get away with murder.
    ‘Besides, they’re so bored and tame,’ she went on; ‘there’s no one under fifty, I declare. I’d like to rouse them and put some pep into them. We might have some sort of a party then.’
    ‘I wonder what Gudvangen will be like,’ I said.
    ‘They say it’s no size at all,’ said the dark girl’s boy, ‘there won’t be any real fun till we get to Balholm. We’ll start an excursion from there.’
    ‘I tell you what would be really cute,’ said Carrie, ‘if we didn’t have to join the rest of the crowd from the boat, but just went off in the wilds to explore. You and your friend ought to join us to swell our party.’
    ‘That’s an idea,’ I said. I did not know what Jake would think of this. It sounded all right to me.
    ‘I want to get somewhere and bathe,’ said the dark girl.
    ‘Gee - I wanner bathe too,’ said the boy who bothered over her rug.
    ‘If you two fellows join us we might get hold of some sort of conveyance,’ said the spectacled man. He seemed to be the boss of the party. I guessed he was inviting us because there would be more money, and with added funds we’d be able to hire a car.
    ‘It would be rather a rag,’ I said.
    ‘Wouldn’t it be swell?’ said Carrie.
    The dressing-gong for dinner sounded then. I supposed they would all go below. Jake and I had not any kit with us.
    ‘Won’t you dine with us?’ asked the dark girl.
    ‘Oh! thanks very much, but we don’t change,’ I said, ‘we’ll be feeding in the other saloon. Maybe we’ll see you afterwards on deck.’
    ‘That’s O.K. then,’ she said.
    She and the spectacled chap, her brother I supposed, were running the show.
    They all got up and looked for their various coats and things. I pretended to help them with the gramophone and a rug, but I was not much use. The dark girl let her boy carry everything. It was probably one of the thrills of his day. I did not know whether to go or to stay. It looked funny to go just because they were.
    Carrie hung back a second after the others. She was powdering her nose. Bill, the chap with the camera, looked after her over his shoulder.
    ‘Come on, baby,’ he called.
    She picked up her coat from the ground and threw it over her arm. She smiled, and it was fun to think nobody but me saw the smile.
    ‘See you later,’ she said.
    She followed the rest of them below. I went off to find Jake.
    I met him coming down from the bridge.
    ‘Wasn’t it fine?’ he said. ‘Did you see well from where you were?’
    ‘What?’ I said.
    ‘Why, the colour of the sky beyond that mountain just ahead.’
    ‘Oh! sure,’ I said. ‘Listen, I’ve been talking to the party with the gramophone. They’re terribly nice. They suggest that when we go ashore at Balholm we sort of hire a car all together and see everything. We can keep away from the rest of the tourist gang.’
    ‘Oh!’ he said.
    ‘It wouldn’t bore you, would it, Jake? What I mean is it’s rather fun being with people, d’you know, just for a change? And they really are easy and amusing. Not stiff at all. There’s a chap - the one with glasses who was reading - he seemed keen to know all about how we’d ridden down from Fagerness through the mountains. I think you’d like him. I believe the dark girl is his sister.’
    ‘I didn’t notice any of them,’ said Jake.
    ‘They said something about us dining with them, but I said we hadn’t any clothes. We might see them up on deck later and talk it all over.’
    ‘Yes,’ said