l disappeared.
Paula's face was crimson as their own carriage swept round in the
opposite direction to the rival inn.

Once in her room she breathed like a person who had finished a long
chase. They did not go down before dinner, but when it was almost dark
Paula begged her aunt to wrap herself up and come with her to the shore
hard by. The beach was deserted, everybody being at the Casino; the
gate stood invitingly open, and they went in. Here the brilliantly lit
terrace was crowded with promenaders, and outside the yellow palings,
surmounted by its row of lamps, rose the voice of the invisible sea.
Groups of people were sitting under the verandah, the women mostly in
wraps, for the air was growing chilly. Through the windows at their
back an animated scene disclosed itself in the shape of a room-full of
waltzers, the strains of the band striving in the ear for mastery over
the sounds of the sea. The dancers came round a couple at a time, and
were individually visible to those people without who chose to look that
way, which was what Paula did.

'Come away, come away!' she suddenly said. 'It is not right for us to be
here.'

Her exclamation had its origin in what she had at that moment seen
within, the spectacle of Mr. George Somerset whirling round the room
with a young lady of uncertain nationality but pleasing figure. Paula
was not accustomed to show the white feather too clearly, but she soon
had passed out through those yellow gates and retreated, till the mixed
music of sea and band had resolved into that of the sea alone.

'Well!' said her aunt, half in soliloquy, 'do you know who I saw dancing
there, Paula? Our Mr. Somerset, if I don't make a great mistake!'

'It was likely enough that you did,' sedately replied her niece. 'He
left Caen with the intention of seeking distractions of a lighter kind
than those furnished by art, and he has merely succeeded in finding
them. But he has made my duty rather a difficult one. Still, it was
my duty, for I very greatly wronged him. Perhaps, however, I have done
enough for honour's sake. I would have humiliated myself by an apology
if I had found him in any other situation; but, of course, one can't he
expected to take MUCH trouble when he is seen going on like that!'

The coolness with which she began her remarks had developed into
something like warmth as she concluded.

'He is only dancing with a lady he probably knows very well.'

'He doesn't know her! The idea