"It's the heat," said my target, as if explaining something.

"And my reward is covert reflections upon my sanity. Need I say
more?"

"No," said everybody.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your kind attention. The
next performance will be at four o'clock this afternoon,
underneath the promenade pier."

I relapsed into comfortable silence and sank back into the
bracken. My sister got up from the clump of heather in which
she was ensconced, crossed to where I was, took my pipe out of my
mouth and kissed me.

"Sorry, old boy," she said; "you're not such a bad sort, really."

"Dear love," said I, "what have you left behind?"

"My bathing-dress, darling."

In spite of the fact that I returned to the hotel and got it,
they were positively rude about the bathing-cove I selected.

"Bathe there?" sneered Berry, as we looked down upon it, all
smiling in the sun, from the top of the cliffs.

"Thanks awfully, I simply love the flints, don't you, Jill?