hung over
the side, and was thereafter known to more than one decorous family
group frequenting the beach as that bold Miss Nightingale. But what
did Sally care what those stuffy people thought about her, with such
a set-off against their bad opinion as the glorious plunge down into
the depths, and the rushing sea-murmur in her ears, the only sound in
the strange green silence; and then the sudden magic of the change back
to the dazzling sun on the moving foam, and some human voice that was
speaking when she dived only just ending off? Surely, after so long a
plunge down, down, that voice should have passed on to some new topic.

For that black and shining merpussy, during one deep dive into the
under-world of trackless waters, had had time to recollect an
appointment with a friend, and had settled in her mind that, as soon
as she was once more in upper air, she would mention it to the crew
of the boat she had dived from. She was long enough under for that.
Then up she came into the rise and fall and ripple overhead like a
sudden Loreley, and as soon as she could see where the boat had got
to, and was free of a long stem of floating weed she had caught up
in the foam, she found her voice. And in it, as it rang out in the
morning air, was a world of youth and life and hope from which care
was an outcast, flung to the winds and the waves.

"I say, Jeremiah, we've got to meet a friend of yours on the pier
this afternoon."

"Time for you to come out of that water, Sarah." This name had
become nearly invariable on Fenwick's part. "Who's your friend?"

"A young lady for you! She's going to bring her dolly to be
electrified for a penny. She'll cry if we don't go; so will dolly."

"Then we _must_ go, clearly. The doctor must come to see fair, or
dolly may get electrocuted, like me." Fenwick very rarely spoke of his
accident now; most likely would not have done so this time but for a
motive akin to his wife's nettle-grasping. He knew Sally would think
of it, and would not have her suppose he shirked speaking of it.

But the laugh goes for a moment out of the face down there in the
water, and the pearls that glittered in the sun have vanished and the
eyes are grave beneath their brows. Only for a moment; then all the
Loreley is back in evidence again, and Sally is petitioning for only
one more plunge, and then she really will swim in. The crew protests,
but the Loreley has her way; her sort generally has.

"I always wonde