closely-cropped, rather fair hair, a sweeping moustache, and
eyes as blue as the sky. He had a nice, open sort of face. He was tall,
nearly six feet in height, and held himself as erect as a grenadier. He
was bending towards the girl and talking to her, and the girl continued
to laugh, and once she glanced with a quick, darting movement in the
direction where Kitty and Florence were sitting. Then, touching her
companion on the arm, she said: "I am tired; will you take me back to
the hotel?"

Neither Kitty nor Florence said a word until the pair--the good-looking,
well-set-up young man and the girl in her pretty summer
dress--disappeared from view. Then Florence turned to Kitty.

"It is?" said Florence.

Kitty nodded.

"Who would have believed it?" continued Florence. She started up in her
excitement.

"I do not think I can quite stand this," she said.

"But where has she come from?" said Kitty again.

"How can I tell? I never want to see her wicked face again."

"She looks just as young as she did six years ago," said Kitty. Then she
added impulsively: "I am sorry I have seen her again; I never could bear
her face. Do you think her eyes were set quite straight in her head,
Florence?"

"I don't know anything about that," answered Florence recklessly. "Long
ago she did me a great deal of harm. There came a time when I almost
hated her. Whether her eyes are straight or not, her mind at least is
crooked. Who is that man she is with?"

"He is good-looking and looks nice also," said Kitty.

Florence made no reply. The girls paced up and down together; but
somehow the edge of the day's enjoyment seemed gone. They went in to
their midday meal between twelve and one, and afterwards Kitty, who said
she felt a little tired, went to lie down. Florence, however, was still
restless and perturbed; she hated the thought of the vicinity of Bertha
Keys, and yet she had a curious longing to know something about her.

"I am not going to fight shy of her or to show her that I am in the
least afraid of her," thought Florence; "I can make myself much more
disagreeable to her and much more dangerous than she can ever make
herself to me. I wonder where she is staying?"

Mrs. Aylmer proposed that she and her daughter should spend the
afternoon on the sands.

"Let us visit the shrimp-woman and get some fresh shrimps and perhaps a
crab or a lobster for supper," said the little Mummy, holding out a bait
which would have quite won