while the water in the wake of the boat hastened to compose itself again
to that sleep from which it had been unwillingly roused by the passing
keel. The boy's heart was full. Often in after years he longed for the
wings of a dove that he might fly to that boat (still floating in the calm
sea of his memory), and there lie until his spirit had had rest enough.

"The next time that Herbert approached the little girl, she waited his
coming; and while they talked, Mrs. Netherby joined them with her Effie.
Presently the gaze of the sea-child was fixed upon little Effie, to the
all but total neglect of the others. The result of this contemplation was
visible the next day. Mrs. Netherby having invited her to come and see
them, the following morning, as they were seated at breakfast, the door of
the room opened, without any prefatory tap, and in peeped with wild
confidence the smiling face of the untamed Undine. It was at once evident
that civilization had laid a finger upon her, and that a new womanly
impulse had been awakened. For there she stood, gazing at Effie, and with
both hands smoothing down her own hair, which she had managed, after a
fashion, to part in the middle, and had plentifully wetted with sea-water.
In her run up the height, it had begun to dry, and little spangles of salt
were visible all over it. She could not alter her dress, whose many
slashes showed little lining except her skin; but she had done all she
could to approximate her appearance to that of Effie, whom she seemed to
regard as a little divinity.

"Mrs. Netherby's heart was drawn towards the motherless child, and she
clothed her from head to foot; though how far this was a benefit as
regarded cold and heat, is a question. Herbert began to teach her to read;
in which her progress was just like her bodily movements over the earth's
surface; now a dead pause, and now the flight of a bird. Now and then she
would suddenly start up, heedless where her book might happen to fall, and