We made expeditions which, as expeditions, were not a success.  Sara objected to leaving the object of her passing affections, a starfish perhaps, and Hugh and Betty also always found treasures of their very own, which they must just watch for just a little time, in case they did something exciting.  These things hinder!  But still we did sometimes reach another cove, and one day, in a very secluded one, I caught sight of a pair of lovers.  One can tell the most discreet of them at a glance, and more than a glance I should never have given this pair had not the girl, so much of her as I could see under a brown mushroom hat, been very pretty.  Her dress too was green muslin, which was in itself compelling, and the boy with her, I felt sure, had passed no examinations.  And yet they were deliriously happy, that I could tell.  So the father wasn’t so cruel, after all, and I doubted whether I should have been the comfort to Veronica that she had anticipated.  In fact, I could easily imagine how greatly in the way I should have been.  Poor professional friend!  That I had at least been spared from becoming.

Veronica, no less than Betty, had discovered where Heaven really was, and the boy had a clearer definition of angels than Hugh.  Hugh was right so far —­ they were in no way related to, or bore any resemblance to, fish.  They were angels pure and simple, and the most beautiful of them, the most enchanting of them, wore a green muslin and a brown mushroom hat.

If I had been that young man, I should have objected to the dimensions of that hat, but he didn’t, I suppose.  Not having passed his examinations may have made a difference.  He would later on, no doubt.  It is a pity, perhaps, that men have to pass examinations; it robs them of much of their simplicity.

Chapter XV

Zerlina discovered, to her immense surprise, that she was near enough to bring all her party to play with ours, and it was arranged that she should do so on the first fine day.

It so happened that all the days were fine, so every day Diana and I watched for the small cloud in the distance that should herald their approach, and one day it appeared, no bigger than a man’s hand.  When it came nearer it was considerably bigger, and it finally assumed the dimensions of Zerlina, Hyacinth, the twins, Teddy, and a small nursery-maid.  Betty was immensely delighted with the twins, her one ambition in life being to have twins of her own.  Failing that, and every birthday only brought fresh disappointment in its wake, the care of somebody else’s was the next best thing.

They really were delicious people, so round and so solemn.  Hugh, for the moment, was engrossed in Teddy; Teddy having, among other things, a knife with “things in it,” most of which he was mercifully unable to open.  It was the certainty of being able to do so on the part of Hugh, which made him so deliriously busy.  Sara was out of it, having no one as yet to play with, and she was proud and disdainful in consequence.  I knew that Betty would shortly have one twin to spare, perhaps two, but this Sara could not guess, knowing nothing of twins.