[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"Charlie is in good spirits today, isn't he?" cried Jimmy.
"Yes," replied Bob with a smile. "But he had better be careful
how he airs his notes, or Mr. Percival will be capturing him for
the choir:"
On we went; trudging through the long grass and picking
our way amid the gnarled and moss-grown trunks of the
trees, until our further progress was barred by a rivulet rather
too broad for us to leap. We walked slowly along the bank
seeking a convenient place to cross without getting wet.
"There is a lot of fish in here, I am sure!" said Jimmy,
climbing out on to a fern-draped boulder that overhung the
stream, and peering into the crystal depths below.
137
The Memoirs of a Voluptuary
by Anonymous
We looked, but only caught the reflection of the duke's
face mirrored on the placid surface of the water.
"All I can see down there is you, Jimmy!" said Bob. "I say,
you chaps! He looks just like that fellow we were reading
about in class the other day Narcissus you know! who
caught sight of his face in a river once, and thought himself
so pretty that he couldn't take his eyes away, and then he fell
in and got drowned."
"Shut up, you ass!" replied Jimmy, trying to look annoyed.
"There you are! I told you there were some fish here; I can
see lots."
"Well, it doesn't matter!" exclaimed de Beaupre; "we
haven't got anything to catch them with, so they can stop.
And we shan't get very far this afternoon if we are going to
hang about like this."
Not many yards farther on, the stream narrowed, and
there were big stones in it which enabled us to step across
easily. From here we met with no more interruptions, and Bob
told us that we should soon get to the coast. The ground
began to rise gradually towards the cliffs which faced the sea,
but Bob took us by a path which led through a picturesque,
winding gorge, carpeted with short grass and decked with a
profusion of creepers and flowering shrubs, down which a tiny
river ran in a succession of little waterfalls and rapids on its
way to the bosom of the ocean. This turned sharply at the
end, and we emerged straight on to the shore.
I could not help uttering an exclamation of delight at the
unwonted spectacle. Before us stretched the broad expanse
of the sea, its deep-blue surface agitated by a gentle ripple
138
The Memoirs of a Voluptuary
by Anonymous
and shining bright beneath the beams of the afternoon sun.
Behind rose a tall bulwark of perpendicular cliffs, their
scarped and rugged surface ornamented with a drapery of
lichens and climbing plants which found foothold in every
nook and cranny. The arch of the firmament was above all,
and I followed its translucent expanse right out to where on
the distant horizon it melted and mingled with the deep
amethyst of the sea. I was full of speechless admiration at
the glory of the prospect. A wide strip of yellow sand
separated the cliffs from the waterline and across this we
raced to where the mimic wavelets plashed musically on the
smooth firmness of the shore, and drew back only to cast
themselves up again with playful sport. I had caught the sea
in one of its gayest humours, and as I bathed my hands
gleefully in its babbling margin, I found it hard to conceive
that it had its terrible moods, too, although I knew that at
times this coast was subject to fearful storms, when the
great, foam-capped billows rushed in with a force that
threatened to lay low the proud rocks themselves.
My comrades laughed good-humouredly at my new-found
pleasure, and I followed them slowly along the edge of the
water, noting with interest the many varieties of seaweed and
shells that strewed the sands, the little crabs that scuttled
away at our approach as fast as their tiny legs would carry
them, and all the strange marine plants and animals that I
now encountered for the first time.
Arriving at length at a miniature bay or inlet, in front of
which a line of sunken rocks formed a natural breakwater,
Jimmy proposed a bathe. "It would be just splendid," he said.
139
The Memoirs of a Voluptuary
by Anonymous
"It's not a bit cold, and it will be the first bathe of the
season."
"But we have no towels or bathing-dresses," I objected.
"What does that matter?" replied the duke. "We can easily [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]