"How jolly it is here; not too warm, just nice. What shall we do? Sit
down on that bench in front of the pier?"

"I'm agreeable. How jolly it is. Just look at those boats! One could
make a picture of that."

Over the sea hung a white veil of mist, but the sun glowed through and
melted into it, and harmonised it with the water green and
translucent. The sea sucked about the shingle with little sudden
sighs; the sails of the pleasure boat waved in the fairy-like depths,
and all the little brown fishing-boats lay becalmed, heaving
tremulously like tired butterflies upon the breast of a blue flower.
The nursemaids lay together on the shingle, and their novels slipped
down the stones to their feet. The children played with the tide and
the sand. There were crowds of women--Jewesses with loud dresses: and
the strange world of bath chairs! Ladies so old that they seem certain
to fall to pieces when they are taken out; ladies with chestnut curls
soft and fresh--why were they in bath chairs? General officers,
mounted on white Arabs; acrobats and songs.

The young men sat facing the sea. Frank called, "Triss, Triss.
Splendid dog that is. If I were to let him he would guzzle the other
dog in about two minutes."

"He looks a ferocious brute."

"You don't like dogs? You couldn't see a handsomer dog than that;
unfortunately, he's the wrong colour; if he were brindle or white,
he'd take a first prize. Come here, you brute."