as something of a sportsman, too, and he called by arrangement the
next morning, after his introduction to the Cap Martin household, and
conducting her to a sheltered cove, containing two bathing huts, he
introduced her to the exhilarating Mediterranean.

Sea bathing is not permitted in Monte Carlo until May, and the water was
much colder than Lydia had expected. They swam out to a floating
platform when Mr. Briggerland and Jean put in an appearance. Jean had
come straight from the house in her bathing-gown, over which she wore a
light wrap. Lydia watched her with amazement, for the girl was an
expert swimmer. She could dive from almost any height and could remain
under water an alarming time.

"I never thought you had so much energy and strength in your little
body," said Lydia, as Jean, with a shriek of enjoyment, drew herself on
the raft and wiped the water from her eyes.

"There's a man up there looking at us through glasses," said Briggerland
suddenly. "I saw the flash of the sun on them."

He pointed to the rising ground beyond the seashore, but they could see
nothing.

Presently there was a glitter of light amongst the green, and Lydia
pointed.

"I thought that sort of thing was never done except in comic
newspapers," she said, but Jean did not smile. Her eyes were focused on
the point where the unseen observer lay or sat, and she shaded her eyes.

"Some visitor from Monte Carlo, I expect. People at Cap Martin are much
too respectable to do anything so vulgar."

Mr. Briggerland, at a glance from his daughter, slipped into the water,
and with strong heavy strokes, made his way to the shore.

"Father is going to investigate," said Jean, "and the water really is
the warmest place," and with that she fell sideways into the blue sea
like a seal, dived down into its depths, and presently Lydia saw her
walking along the white floor of the ocean, her little hands keeping up
an almost imperceptible motion. Presently she shot up again, shook her
head and looked round, only to dive again.

In the meantime, though Lydia, who was fascinated by the manoeuvre of
the girl, did not notice the fact, Mr. Briggerland had reached the
shore, pulled on a pair of rubber shoes, and with his mackintosh
buttoned over his bathing dress, had begun to climb through the
underbrush towards the spot where the glasses had glistened. When Lydia
looked up he had disappeared.

"Where is your father?" she asked the girl.

"He went into