"Try a turn with me," Ridley called across to Rachel.

"Foolish!" cried Helen, but they went stumbling up the ladder. Choked
by the wind their spirits rose with a rush, for on the skirts of all the
grey tumult was a misty spot of gold. Instantly the world dropped into
shape; they were no longer atoms flying in the void, but people riding
a triumphant ship on the back of the sea. Wind and space were banished;
the world floated like an apple in a tub, and the mind of man, which had
been unmoored also, once more attached itself to the old beliefs.

Having scrambled twice round the ship and received many sound cuffs from
the wind, they saw a sailor's face positively shine golden. They looked,
and beheld a complete yellow circle of sun; next minute it was traversed
by sailing stands of cloud, and then completely hidden. By breakfast
the next morning, however, the sky was swept clean, the waves, although
steep, were blue, and after their view of the strange under-world,
inhabited by phantoms, people began to live among tea-pots and loaves of
bread with greater zest than ever.

Richard and Clarissa, however, still remained on the borderland. She did
not attempt to sit up; her husband stood on his feet, contemplated his
waistcoat and trousers, shook his head, and then lay down again. The
inside of his brain was still rising and falling like the sea on the
stage. At four o'clock he woke from sleep and saw the sunlight make a
vivid angle across the red plush curtains and the grey tweed trousers.
The ordinary world outside slid into his mind, and by the time he was
dressed he was an English gentleman again.

He stood beside his wife. She pulled him down to her by the lapel of his