open to us in the Gouliots.

We could now go quite a long way down the shelving side of the rock, and
the water that lay below was no longer black but a beautiful living green,
from the light which stole up through it by means of an archway at the
farther end. The arch was under water, but the light streamed through it,
soft and mellow and glowing, so that the whole place seemed to throb with
gentle life. Outside I judged it was early morning, with the sun shining
full on the sea above the archway.

And here we found what Krok had shown us in the Gouliots as their chiefest
beauties,--the roof and walls were studded with anemones of every size and
colour, green and crimson, and brown and pink, and lavender and white and
orange; so completely was the rock clothed with them that it was not rock
we saw, but masses and sheets and banks of the lovely clinging things, all
closed up within themselves till the water should return, and shining like
polished gems in the ghostly green light.

The boulders that strewed the sloping sides of the cave-floor were covered
with them also, and in the glowing green water they were all in full bloom
and waving their arms merrily to and fro in search of food.

There, too, a leprous thing with treacherous, gliding arms crawled after
prey, and at sight of it Carette gripped my arm and murmured "Pieuvre," as
though she feared it might hear her. She had always a very great horror of
those creatures, though in speaking of them when they were not present she
had at times assumed a boldness which she did not really feel. This,
however, was a very small monster, and indeed they do not grow to any very
great size with us.

This softly glowing place was very pleasant to us after the darkness and
lantern light of the other cave. We sat for a long time, till the glow
faded somewhat and the water began whuffling against the rock walls, and
climbed them slowly till at last all the cave was dark again, and we groped
back along the cleft to our sleeping-place with the sounds of great waters
in our ears from the Boutiques.

After that we sought the sea-cave each time we woke, and whenever the light
was in it we sat there, and ate, and talked of all we had done, and
thought, and feared, and hoped, during those long months when we were
apart. And once and again Carette fell on earlier times still, and we were
boy and girl together under the Autelets and Tintageu, or swimming in Havre
Gosselin, and trembli