ried Gissing. "Do you know, I've never been to the
seashore."

"Don't worry," she replied. "I won't let you see much of the ocean.
We'll go to the Traymore, and spend the whole time dancing in the
Submarine Grill."

"But I must be back in time for the service on Sunday," he said.

"We're going to leave first thing in the morning. We'll go in the car,
and I'll drive. Will you sit with me in the front seat?"

"Watch me!" replied Gissing gallantly.

"Come on then, or you'll be late for dinner. I'll race you home!" And
she was off like a flash.

But in spite of Miss Airedale's threat, at Atlantic City they both fell
into a kind of dreamy reverie. The wine-like tingle of that salty air
was a quiet drug. The apparently inexhaustible sunshine was sharpened
with a faint sting of coming autumn. Gissing suddenly remembered that it
was ages since he had simply let his mind run slack and allowed life to
go by unstudied. Mr. and Mrs. Airedale occupied a suite high up in the
terraced mass of the huge hotel; they wrapped themselves in rugs and
basked on their private balcony. Gissing and the daughter were left
to their own amusements. They bathed in the warm September surf; they
strolled the Boardwalk up beyond the old Absecon light, where the green
glimmer of water runs in under the promenade. They sat on the deck
of the hotel--or rather Miss Airedale sat, while Gissing, courteously
attentive, leaned over her steamer-chair. He stood so for hours,
apparently in devoted chat; but in fact he was half in dream. The smooth
flow of the little rolling shays just below had a soothing hypnotic
erect. But it was the glorious polished blue of the sea-horizon that
bounded all his thoughts. Even while Miss Airedale gazed archly up at
him, and he was busy with cheerful conversation, he was conscious of
that broad band of perfect colour, monotonous, comforting, thrilling.
For the first time he realized the great rondure of the world. His mind
went back to the section of the prayer-book that had always touched him
most pointedly--the "Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea." In them he had
found a note of sincere terror and humility. And now he viewed the sea
for the first time in this setting of notable irony. The open dazzle of
placid elements, obedient only to some cosmic calculus, lay as a serene
curtain against which the quaint flamboyance of the Boardwalk was all
the more amusing. The clear rim of sea curving off into space drew him
with pai