Volume VIII Part 18 (1/2)

The path, now less steep, was here ale rocks which had at some former time rolled from the hilltop

Mme Rosemilly and Jean set off at a run and they were soon on the beach They crossed it and reached the rocks, which stretched in a long and flat expanse covered with seaweed, and broken by endless glea pools The ebbed waters lay beyond, very far away, across this plain of slireen

Jean rolled up his trousers above his calf, and his sleeves to his elbows, that he : ”Forward!”

he leaped boldly into the first tidepool they ca to go in too, presently,tirassy weed

”Do you see anything?” she asked

”Yes, I see your face reflected in the water”

”If that is all you see, you will not have good fishi+ng”

Heit is that I should like best to succeed in”

She laughed: ”Try; you will see hoill slip through your net”

”But yet--if you will?”

”I will see you catch prawns--and nothing else--for the o a little further; there are none here”

He gave her his hand to steady her on the slippery rocks She leaned on him rather timidly, and he suddenly felt hient with passion, as if the fever that had been incubating in him had waited till to-day to declare its presence

They soon ca slender weeds, fantastically tinted, like floating green and rose-colored hair, were swaying under the quivering water as it trickled off to the distant sea through some invisible crevice

M one A very big one, just there!” He saw it too, and stepped boldly into the pool though he got wet up to the waist But the creature, waving its long whiskers, gently retired in front of the net Jean drove it toward the seaweed,sure of his prey When it found itself blockaded it rose with a dart over the net, shot across thethe chase in great excite: ”Oh! Clued his net over a hole full of weed As he brought it to the surface again he saw in it three large transparent prawns, caught blindfold in their hiding place

He offered them in triumph to Mme Rosemilly, as afraid to touch them, for fear of the sharp, serrated crest which arms their heads

However, shethe whiskers she dropped them one by one into her creel, with a little seaweed to keep the found a shallower pool of water, she stepped in with soe of her feet took her breath away, and began to fish on her own account

She was dextrous and artful, with the light hand and the hunter's instinct, which are indispensable At aluiled and surprised by her ingeniously gentle pursuit

Jean now caught nothing; but he followed her, step by step, touched her now and again, bent over her, pretended great distress at his oardness, and besought her to teach hi ”Show me how”

And then, as their two faces were reflected side by side in water so clear that the black weeds at the bottom made a mirror, Jean smiled at the face which looked up at hier tips blew it a kiss which seeht upon it

”Oh! how tiresome you are!” she exclais at once”

He replied: ”I a you”

She drew herself up and said gravely:

”What has come over you these ten minutes; have you lost your wits?”