would be sand, for all that. And even the authority would be
gone, and the local by-laws. But it would sound upon some shore for
ever. So it kept on saying. Probably it was mistaken.

This has nothing to do with our story except that it is approximately
the substance of a statement made by Sally to Miss Arkwright, who was
interested, and had been promised it all over again to-morrow. For
the present she could talk about the pier and take her audience for
granted.

"But was it that Kensington Gardens business that did the job?" asked
Sally, in the shadow of the breakwater, getting the black hair dry
after three-quarters of an hour in the sea; because caps, you know,
are all nonsense as far as keeping water out goes. So Sally had to sit
ever so long with it out to dry. And the very tiny pebbles you can
almost see into stick to your hands, as you know, and come off in your
hair when you run them through it, and have to be combed out. At
least, Sally's had. But she kept on running the pebbles through her
still blue fingers for all that as she half lay, half sat by Tishy
on the beach.

"'Did the job!'" repeats the bride on her honeymoon with some
indignation. "Sally dear, when will you learn to be more refined in
your ways of speech? I'm not a _precieuse_, but--'did the job!'
Really, Sally!..."

"Observe the effect of three weeks in France. The Julius Bradshaws can
parlay like anything! No, Tishy darling, don't be a stuck-upper, but
tell me again about Kensington Gardens."

"I told you. It was just like that. Julius and I were walking up the
avenue--you know...."

"The one that goes up and across, and comes straight like this?"
Tishy, helped by a demonstration of blue finger-tips, recognises this,
strange to say.

"No, not that one. It doesn't matter. We didn't see mamma coming till
she was ever so close, because of the Speke Monument in the way. And
what could possess her to come home that way from Hertford Street,
Mayfair, I cannot imagine!"

"Never mind, Tishy dear! It's no use crying over spilled milk. What
did she say?"

"Nothing, dear. She turned purple, and bowed civilly. To Julius, of
course. But it included me, whether or no."

"But was that what did the job?... We-ell, I do not see _anything_
to object to in that expression. Was it?"

"If you mean, dear, was it that that made us, me and Julius, feel that
matters would get no better by waiting, I think perhaps it was....
Well, when it comes to meeti