beach between two great bastions of cliffs. The beach itself contains a
diminutive jetty, a tiny fleet of fishing smacks, some nets, three bathing
machines joined together by ropes on which hang a few towels and bathing
costumes, a dog, a child or so with spade and bucket, two English maiden
ladies writing picture post-cards, a Frenchman in black, reading a Rouen
newspaper under a gray umbrella, his wife and daughter, and a stall of
mussels presided over by an old woman with skin like seaweed. Just above
the beach, on one side of the road leading up the gorge, is a miniature
barn with a red cupola, which is the Casino, and, on the other, a long,
narrow, blue-washed building with the words written in great black letters
across the facade, "Hotel de la Plage."

As soon as Emmy could travel, she implored Septimus to find her a quiet
spot by the sea whither the fashionable do not resort. Septimus naturally
consulted Hegisippe Cruchot. Hegisippe asked for time to consult his
comrades. He returned with news of an ideal spot. It was a village in the
Pyrenees about six thousand feet up in the air and forty miles from a
railway station. They could shoot bears all day long. When Emmy explained
that a village on the top of the Pyrenees was not by the seaside, and that
neither she nor his aunt, Madame Bolivard, took any interest in the
destruction of bears, he retired somewhat crestfallen and went with his
difficulties to Angelique, the young lady in the wine shop in the Rue des
Francs-Bouchers. Angelique informed him that a brave sailor on leave from
his torpedo boat was in the habit of visiting the wine shop every evening.
He ought to know something of the sea. A meeting was arranged by Angelique
between Hegisippe, Septimus and the brave sailor, much to Emmy's skeptical
amusement; and the brave sailor, after absorbing prodigious quantities of
alcohol and reviewing all the places on the earth's coastline from Yokohama
to Paris-Plage, declared that the veritable Eden by the Sea was none other
than his native village of Hottetot-sur-Mer. He made a plan of it on the
table, two square packets of tobacco representing the cliffs, a pipe stem
the road leading up the gorge, some tobacco dust the beach, and some coffee
slops applied with the finger the English Channel.

Septimus came back to Emmy. "I have found the place. It is
Hottetot-sur-Mer. It has one hotel. You can catch shrimps, and its mussels
are famous all over the world."

Af