Some strangers were already at breakfast under a tent by a grass-plot shaded by apple trees—­Parisians, who had come from Etretat; and from the house came sounds of voices, laughter, and the clatter of plates and pans.

They were to eat in a room, as the outer dining-halls were all full.  Roland suddenly caught sight of some shrimping nets hanging against the wall.

“Ah! ha!” cried he, “you catch prawns here?”

“Yes,” replied Beausire.  “Indeed it is the place on all the coast where most are taken.”

“First-rate!  Suppose we try to catch some after breakfast.”

As it happened it would be low tide at three o’clock, so it was settled that they should all spend the afternoon among the rocks, hunting prawns.

They made a light breakfast, as a precaution against the tendency of blood to the head when they should have their feet in the water.  They also wished to reserve an appetite for dinner, which had been ordered on a grand scale and to be ready at six o’clock when they came in.

Roland could not sit still for impatience.  He wanted to buy the nets specially constructed for fishing prawns, not unlike those used for catching butterflies in the country.  Their name on the French coast is lanets; they are netted bags on a circular wooden frame, at the end of a long pole.  Alphonsine, still smiling, was happy to lend them.  Then she helped the two ladies to make an impromptu change of toilet, so as not to spoil their dresses.  She offered them skirts, coarse worsted stockings and hemp shoes.  The men took off their socks and went to the shoemaker’s to buy wooden shoes instead.

Then they set out, the nets over their shoulders and creels on their backs.  Mme. Rosemilly was very sweet in this costume, with an unexpected charm of countrified audacity.  The skirt which Alphonsine had lent her, coquettishly tucked up and firmly stitched so as to allow of her running and jumping fearlessly on the rocks, displayed her ankle and lower calf—­the firm calf of a strong and agile little woman.  Her dress was loose to give freedom to her movements, and to cover her head she had found an enormous garden hat of coarse yellow straw with an extravagantly broad brim; and to this, a bunch of tamarisk pinned in to cock it on one side, gave a very dashing and military effect.

Jean, since he had come into his fortune, had asked himself every day whether or no he should marry her.  Each time he saw her he made up his mind to ask her to be his wife, and then, as soon as he was alone again, he considered that by waiting he would have time to reflect.  She was now less rich than he, for she had but twelve thousand francs a year; but it was in real estate, in farms and lands near the docks in Havre; and this by-and-bye might be worth a great deal.  Their fortunes were thus approximately equal, and certainly the young widow attracted him greatly.

As he watched her walking in front of him that day he said to himself: