t
turned them to the sea, and for the rest of the time sat looking at
the sea. The sea, though it was a thin and sparkling water here, which
seemed incapable of surge or anger, eventually narrowed itself, clouded
its pure tint with grey, and swirled through narrow channels and dashed
in a shiver of broken waters against massive granite rocks. It was this
sea that flowed up to the mouth of the Thames; and the Thames washed the
roots of the city of London.

Hewet's thoughts had followed some such course as this, for the first
thing he said as they stood on the edge of the cliff was--

"I'd like to be in England!"

Rachel lay down on her elbow, and parted the tall grasses which grew on
the edge, so that she might have a clear view. The water was very calm;
rocking up and down at the base of the cliff, and so clear that one
could see the red of the stones at the bottom of it. So it had been at
the birth of the world, and so it had remained ever since. Probably no
human being had ever broken that water with boat or with body. Obeying
some impulse, she determined to mar that eternity of peace, and threw
the largest pebble she could find. It struck the water, and the ripples
spread out and out. Hewet looked down too.

"It's wonderful," he said, as they widened and ceased. The freshness and
the newness seemed to him wonderful. He threw a pebble next. There was
scarcely any sound.

"But England," Rachel murmured in the absorbed tone of one whose eyes
are concentrated upon some sight. "What d'you want with England?"

"My friends chiefly," he said, "and all the things one does."

He could look at Rachel without her noticing it. She was still absorbed
in the water and the exquisitely pleasant sensations which a little
depth of the sea washing over rocks suggests. He noticed that she was
wearing a dress of deep blue colour, made of a soft thin cotton stuff,
which clung to the shape of her body. It was a body with the angles
and hollows of a young woman's body not yet developed, but in no way
distorted, and thus interesting and even lovable. Raising his eyes Hewet
observed her head; she had taken her hat off, and the face rested on her
hand. As she looked down into the sea, her lips were slightly parted.
The expression was one of childlike intentness, as if she were watching
for a fish to swim past over the clear red rocks. Nevertheless her
twenty-four years of life had given her a look of reserve. Her hand,
which lay on the