hat way to settle it.
Ridiculously simple. Give me a taste, Erema. Ah, that is the real beauty
of our coast, my dear! The strongest proportion of the saline element--I
should know the taste of it any where. No sea-weed, no fishy particles,
no sludge, no beards of oysters. The pure, uncontaminated, perfect
brine, that sets every male and female on his legs, varicose,
orthopedic--I forget their scientifics, but I know the smack of it."

"Certainly," I said, "it is beautifully salt. It will give you an
appetite for dinner, Major Hockin. I could drink a pint of it, after all
that smoke. But don't you think it is a serious thing for the sea itself
to come pouring through the bottom of this pebble bank in this way?"

"Not at all. No, I rather like it. It opens up many strictly practical
ideas. It adds very much to the value of the land. For instance, a
'salt-lick,' as your sweet Yankees call it--and set up an infirmary for
foot and mouth disease. And better still, the baths, the baths, my dear.
No expense for piping, or pumping, or any thing. Only place your marble
at the proper level, and twice a day you have the grand salubrious
sparkling influx of ocean's self, self-filtered, and by its own
operation permeated with a fine siliceous element. What foreign mud
could compete with such a bath?"

"But supposing there should come too much of it," I said, "and wash both
the baths and the bathers away?"

"Such an idea is ridiculous. It can be adjusted to a nicety. I am very
glad I happened to observe this thing, this--this noble phenomenon.
I shall speak to Montague about it at once, before I am half an hour
older. My dear, you have made a conquest; I quite forgot to tell you;
but never mind that for the present. Driver, here is half a crown for
you. Your master will put down the fly to my account. He owes me a
heriot. I shall claim his best beast, the moment he gets one without a
broken wind."

As the Major spoke, he got out at his own door with all his wonted
alacrity; but instead of offering me his hand, as he always had done
in London, he skipped up his nine steps, on purpose (as I saw) that
somebody else might come down for me. And this was Sir Montague Hockin,
as I feared was only too likely from what had been said. If I had even
suspected that this gentleman was at Bruntlands, I would have done my
utmost to stay where I was, in spite of all absence of money. Betsy
would gladly have allowed me to remain, without paying e