“And will you go out in a boat now?” said Sheila, looking down to the beach.

“In a boat!  What sort of boat?” said Mrs. Kavanagh.

“Any one of those little sailing boats:  it is very good boats they are, as far as I can see.”

“No, thank you,” said the elder lady with a smile.  “I am not fond of small boats, and the company of the men who go with you might be a little objectionable, I should fancy.”

“But you need not take any men,” said Sheila:  “the sailing of one of those little boats, it is very simple.”

“Do you mean to say you could manage the boat by yourself?”

“Oh yes!  It is very simple.  And my husband, he will help me.”

“And what would you do if you went out?”

“We might try the fishing.  I do not see where the rocks are, but we would go off the rocks and put down the anchor and try the lines.  You would have some ferry good fish for breakfast in the morning.”

“My dear child,” said Mrs. Kavanagh, “you don’t know what you propose to us.  To go and roll about in an open boat in these waves—­we should be ill in five minutes.  But I suppose you don’t know what sea-sickness is?”

“No,” said Sheila, “but I will hear my husband speak of it often.  And it is only in crossing the Channel that people will get sick.”

“Why, this is the Channel.”

Sheila stared.  Then she endeavored to recall her geography.  Of course this must be a part of the Channel, but if the people in the South became ill in this weather, they must be rather feeble creatures.  Her speculations on this point were cut short by the entrance of her husband, who came to announce that he had not only secured a carriage for a month, but that it would be round at the hotel door in half an hour; whereupon the two American ladies said they would be ready, and left the room.

“Now go off and get dressed, Sheila,” said Lavender.

She stood for a moment irresolute.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” she said after a moment’s hesitation—­“if you would allow me to go by myself—­if you would go to the driving, and let me go down to the shore!”

“Oh, nonsense!” he said.  “You will have people fancying you are only a school-girl.  How can you go down to the beach by yourself among all those loafing vagabonds, who would pick your pocket or throw stones at you?  You must behave like an ordinary Christian:  now do, like a good girl, get dressed and submit to the restraints of civilized life.  It won’t hurt you much.”

So she left, to lay aside with some regret her rough blue dress, and he went down stairs to see about ordering dinner.